It appears Telangana Rashtra Samithi president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s ambitious idea of floating a federal front of all regional parties as an alternative to the Congress as well as the Bharatiya Janata party has not many takers.
In the last two days, KCR has met Biju Janata Dal president and Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik and Trinamul Congress president and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee to discuss the federal front proposal.
Though both the leaders did not completely turn down KCR’s proposal, they were sceptical about the possibility of forming such a federal front. They reportedly raised several queries as to what the common thread would be that could bring all the regional parties together.
“Every political party has different political compulsions in different states. No party is willing to ignore these compulsions,” Mamata is learnt to have told KCR.
Already, some parties are associated with the BJP in NDA and some others with the Congress party. Now that the elections are fast approaching, parties have already started their seat sharing negotiations.
In Bihar, for instance, the Janata Dal (United) and Lok Jana Sakthi party had already entered into an agreement on seat sharing in the Lok Sabha elections.
In Maharashtra, the Nationalist Congress party has struck the deal with the Congress party for the Lok Sabha elections. In Karnataka, JD (S) already has an alliance with the Congress.
Similarly, Shiv Sena in Maharashtra is most likely to remain in the NDA. In Uttar Pradesh, Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party made it clear that they would fight the elections together and would decide on their future course only after the elections.
The BJP already has an alliance with the Congress in Madhya Pradesh. So, there are hardly any major regional parties that have the intention of joining any other front.
In such a situation, the chance of a federal front emerging appear to be bleak. On the other hand, KCR’s plan would only result in splitting of anti-establishment vote which would indirectly help the Bharatiya Janata Party.