Naveen S Garewal
Tribune News Service
Hyderabad, April 5
Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao (KCR) has surprised all, ceasing his vitriolic references to the Congress leadership, including UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi. Though acknowledging her role in the formation of Telangana, he began to attack the Congress prior to the Assembly elections last year. He also severed ties with the BJP and started pushing for a non-Congress, non-BJP government through his Federal Front.
There is now a change in his stand. In a rare interview to a TV channel, he used extremely harsh words for Prime Minister Narendra Modi while calling the UPA chairperson as “very understanding and patient”. KCR, who has had close ties with the BJP and is often dubbed as the PM’s “B” team, has strategically distanced himself from the BJP as his Federal Front is against both the national parties. Earlier having called Congress president Rahul Gandhi a “buffoon”, he told the channel, “Rahul has been maturing well as a leader”.
The unexpected change in his tone has set the alarm bells ringing with a former Governor based in Hyderabad observing: “The change is not without a strategy”. It is believed that KCR cannot be cosying up to the Congress without any reason. A firm believer in astrology, for which he was ridiculed by PM Modi at a rally recently, he may have been told that the TRS and the Congress could have to work together in a post-poll scenario.
A day prior to KCR coming out openly to draw a distinction between the Congress and the BJP, the party’s Nizamabad MP and CM’s daughter K Kavitha emphatically ruled out a truck with the BJP after the elections, irrespective of the results. Meanwhile, KCR has stepped up his attack on the PM, questioning why Opposition leaders alone were being subjected to raids by the ED and I-T Department.
KCR, a minister in the UPA government from 2004 to 2009, is said to be making amends with the Congress, especially since the latter is part of the Mahagathbandan initiated by Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu.
from The Tribune http://bit.ly/2uPwQcX
via Today’s News Headlines
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