Former Congress MP from Rajahmundry Vundavalli Arun Kumar, a staunch opponent of the bifurcation of combined Andhra Pradesh and hitherto a bitter critic of Telangana Rashtra Samithi president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has taken a sudden U-turn.
On Monday, Vundavalli showered praises on KCR and said the Telangana chief minister has all the capacity to lead the opposition parties in the country to pull down the Narendra Modi government.
The former MP, who had a day-long interaction with the Telangana chief minister at Pragati Bhavan on Sunday, said KCR had made a deep study of the country’s politics.
“He has a fair understanding of the country’s politics and has a clear development agenda. I was really surprised at his in-depth knowledge on the issues plaguing the nation,” he said.
Stating that KCR has the tremendous capacity to communicate with the people of the country, Vundavalli said in fact, the TRS chief could articulate better than West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee.
“He is going forward with a specific and clear agenda,” he said.
Vundavalli, however, refused to comment on the Telangana chief’s plan to float a national party. He refuted the talk that KCR had asked him to head the new party in Andhra.
“I have retired from politics; so, there is no question of joining any party. But I will go whenever KCR calls me to share my ideas,” he said.
The former MP agreed with KCR’s argument that the Congress party has weakened in the country and there is a need to form a powerful alternative to the BJP, whose policies are detrimental to the nation.
“I fully agree with KCR’s apprehensions about the BJP,” he said.
Vundavalli admitted that political strategist Prashant Kishor had also joined the discussions between him and KCR.
“We have discussed many issues with regard to the national politics,” he added.