Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president N Chandrababu Naidu on Wednesday responded to attempts by his Telangana counterpart and Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) president K Chandrasekhar Rao, to form a 'Federal Front' in New Delhi and said that it would only end up benefiting the ruling-BJP at the Centre. Reacting to KCR’s plans of floating a non-BJP and non-Congress front, Naidu reportedly said, "This third front, which KCR is trying to form, will only help BJP by splitting votes.”
The TDP chief interacted with several senior party leaders including Minister via a teleconference on Wednesday, following which he spoke to the media and said that candidates for Assembly and Lok Sabha elections would be announced in advance.
In a separate development, he also lashed out at the opposition YSRCP in the state and the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) for extending their support to KCR with their own political motives at play.
TRS MP and KCR's daughter K. Kavitha on Wednesday reiterated in New Delhi that the TRS was working to form a federal front for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections that would not have either Congress or BJP in it.
"A federal front is being floated. We believe that a neutral platform should be established which is free of both BJP and Congress. Our agenda is to address the people of this nation. There have been various political groupings in the country which failed while few succeeded," she told reporters.
Kavitha said that regional parties will have a greater role to play in the national politics because they can address the aspirations of the people which national parties could not do.
"We have done it in Telangana. We want to replicate the same at national level and we will certainly work very hard to make sure to form an alliance which will not have either BJP or Congress," she said.
She hit out at the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA), saying it has "miserably failed" on delivery of various promises made to people.
This comes at a time when efforts to bring opposition parties together are also being undertaken by Naidu himself, who has already met several leaders like Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, BSP leader Mayawati and National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah besides Loktrantrik Janata Dal leader Sharad Yadav, former Union minister Yashwant Sinha, CPI leader D Raja, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and others.
IANS inputs