bjp: K Chandrashekar Rao steps up effort for an anti-BJP front, set to meet more opposition leaders

In a bid to cobble up a third front against the BJP ahead of the 2024 parliamentary elections, Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao will reach out to prominent opposition leaders, including Hemant Soren in Jharkhand, HD Deve Gowda in Karnataka and Akhilesh Yadav in Uttar Pradesh among others, across the country. He has already met Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and NCP supremo Sharad Pawar.

KCR, as the chief minister is popularly known, is camping in Delhi for the last two days to garner support for his idea of a third front. He is likely to meet Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal this week and discuss his idea of a national anti-BJP front. He is accompanied by his daughter Kavitha Kalvakuntla, state minister V Srinivas Goud, Rajya Sabha MP J Santosh Kumar and planning board vice-chairman B Vinod Kumar. KCR has already reached out to Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav for a meeting to discuss the broader alliance.

An aide, who did not wish to be identified, told ET, “The Uttar Pradesh election results will not have any bearing on the efforts of coming together against the BJP. The chief minister will meet Akhilesh Yadav to plan for a larger front for 2024 elections after March 10 election results.”

KCR has also opened back channel communication to understand if Odisha chief minister and Biju Janata Dal president Naveen Patnaik could come on board for a non-BJP alliance.

The shape of the third front will depend on KCR’s meeting with West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee. While All India Trinamool Congress chief has called for a non-BJP and non-Congress front, Maratha strongman and NCP chief Sharad Pawar has stated that no non-BJP alliance is possible without Congress. If KCR gets Banerjee on board, it could mean exclusion of the Left Front from the larger alliance. The two chief ministers are also planning to hold a meeting of opposition leaders in New Delhi after KCR wraps up his outreach.

This is not the first time that KCR and Banerjee have come together to form a larger anti-BJP front. The two had initiated the idea of a federal front in Kolkata in March 2018, a year before the April-May 2019 parliamentary elections. In the run-up to the first Lok Sabha elections after the formation of a separate Telangana, KCR was keen to keep Congress out of the alliance. He batted for a non-Congress and non-BJP alliance.

A ‘United India’ rally was organised by Banerjee in Kolkata’s Parade Ground in January 2019. It was attended by all major opposition parties. However, there was no formal alliance in the parliamentary elections four months later.