After a lot of dilly dallying, Telangana Rashtra Samithi president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao decided to send his party leaders for the meeting being convened by West Bengal chief minister and Trinamul Congress president Mamata Banerjee at Delhi on Wednesday to discuss the Presidential election issue.
According to the TRS sources, former MP and close aide of KCR Boyinapalli Vinod Kumar and state power minister G Jagadish Reddy would attend the meeting called by Mamata to be held at the Constitution Club to finalise a consensus candidate in the Presidential elections to counter the National Democratic Alliance candidate.
In fact, Mamata invited KCR for the meeting. Initially, he did not evince much interest, as Mamata had ignored him earlier in the opposition parties’ meeting in the past. Secondly, he does not want to be party to any group that has the Congress party in it.
He was of the view that if the TRS supports a Congress-sponsored candidate backed by the other opposition parties, it would damage the TRS prospects back home.
At the same time, if KCR abstains from the meeting, it would send a wrong signal to the people that he was against a consensus opposition candidate and he might be indirectly supporting the BJP candidate.
Moreover, there would be no takers for KCR’s efforts to build an effective anti-Modi campaign across the country. Since he wants to be friendly with the other opposition parties, he has to be part of the Mamata’s efforts.
That is why, KCR has finally decided to send his party leaders – Vinod and Jagadish and thereby, avoided attending the meeting on the pretext that he would be busy making preparations for the launch of a national party next Sunday.
The TRS chief is expected to leave for New Delhi on the same day. He would meet several important people in the national capital to discuss and finalise the party flag, agenda and other technical issues.