Hyderabad: Telangana state Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao is likely to visit West Bengal, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh after Parliamentary elections to be held in the state on April 11.
Mr Rao has been batting for a non-Congress and non-BJP government at the Centre, and urging consolidating of regional parties, post-elections, in his election campaigns.
He is relying on backing from West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati and leaders of various other regional parties.
He has announced that Prakash Ambedkar, grandson of Babasaheb Ambedkar, and president of the Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh party is also supporting him. Unconfirmed reports indicate that Mr Rao will participate in election rallies during his visit to these other states.
Mr Rao has said he is confident of winning 16 Lok Sabha seats with his ally, the Majlis-e-Ittihadul Muslimeen winning the Hyderabad seat. He is also confident of the YSR Congress winning more than 20 Lok Sabha seats in Andhra Pradesh.
.Sources said Mr Rao was chalking out a strategy to convince regional parties that have ideological differences with the Congress and the BJP to have a non-Congress and non-BJP government at the Centre.
After the Assembly results in December 2018, Mr Rao had visited Ms Banerjee, Mr Patnaik and also met Mr Akhilesh Yadav and Ms Mayawati and discussed the formation of a Federal Front that could play a crucial role in forming the next government at the Centre.
Sources said that with surveys indicating that neither the BJP nor the Congress will emerge with a clear majority, Mr Rao is thinking of intensifying his lobbying with regional party heads.
YSR Congress chief Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy and MIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi have already announced that they would go with the TRS.
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