Hyderabad: TRS chief and Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao wants to showcase the ‘Karnataka model’ to bring all regional parties under the umbrella of his proposed Federal Front and to give hope to regional leaders that they can form a government at the Centre in 2019.
Mr Rao strongly believes that a Karnataka-like situation will occur in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections as neither the BJP or the Congress will get a clear majority and will be forced to hand over the reins in Delhi to the Federal Front of regional parties.
Mr Rao, who has visited West Bengal, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu in the past two months to garner support for the Fede-ral Front, will visit other states in June to meet reg-ional leaders and forge the Front by August.
The CM is learnt to have held a meeting with some of his cabinet colleagues, senior TRS leaders, MLAs, MLCs and MPs after the BJP government in Karnataka resigned even before the trust vote was conducted in the Legislative Assembly on Saturday.
According to a TRS lead-er, Mr Rao had recalled his assertion about the JD(S) coming to power in Karnataka.
During a meeting with TRS leaders, the party chief seems to have said: “When I visited Bengaluru last month, some journalists asked me which party would come to power in Karnataka. When I told them that the Janata Dal(S) would play the key role, they laughed. I said this will become a reality and I will come again here after the poll results. Today the JD(S) is not a kingmaker but has become the king.”
This development, Mr Rao believes, has shown how regional parties can play a key role at the Centre in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. “They will get the opportunity to lead the alternative government at the Centre as no national party will get a clear majority,” Mr Rao seems to have said.
Mr Rao expressed satisfaction that his estimate of the Karnataka polls had come true and said that the Karnataka poll outcome has given him strength to pursue his proposal to forge a Federal Front by touring other states.
Mr Rao is currently in the process of devising a common agenda for the Federal Front which will be announced in July with the prime focus on agriculture, irrigation, drinking water and the economy.
The CM is hopeful of bringing together all regional parties by August as he feels that Federal Front will be ‘agenda driven’ and not based on ‘silly politics’.
Mr Rao is not averse to taking the support of the Congress to form the Federal Front government at the Centre in the 2019 election if the partners in the front arrive at a consensus to keep the BJP out of power.
Trinamool, DMK, Samajwadi Party, BSP and JD(S) are in favour of sailing with the Congress to oust the BJP in 2019.
