KCR to skip oath, Cong says he is scared of BJP
HYDERABAD: Telangana Rashtra Samithi president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao will not attend the swearing-in ceremony of HD Kumaraswamy as Karnataka’s new chief minister in Bengaluru on Wednesday because the JD(S) has partnered with the Congress.
Though KCR initially wanted to attend the ceremony, he decided against it as an afterthought following the alliance between the JD (S) and the Congress, a TRS leader said on the condition of anonymity.
“Though Kumaraswamy is the new chief minister of Karnataka, the majority partner in the government is the Congress, which is the main rival for the TRS in Telangana. How can we share dais with our rivals?” the leader said.
But since KCR is planning to rope JD (S) into his proposed federal front plan and had held talks with Deve Gowda last month, he has to maintain good relations with him. “Hence, he has decided to go to Bengaluru a day in advance to greet Kumaraswamy,” the TRS leader said.
So KCR flew to Bengaluru Tuesday on a special flight to meet Kumaraswamy and greet him personally. The CM’S office, though, maintains that KCR’S prior engagements won’t allow him to attend Wednesday’s function in Bengaluru.
The Telangana unit of the Congress, however, alleged that KCR was not attending the ceremony because he did not want to antagonise the Bharatiya Janata Party.
“KCR supported JD (S) thinking that it would have coalition with the BJP. But JD (S) joined hands with the Congress, which he does not like,” senior Congress leader and former minister Marri Shashidhar Reddy said.
He alleged that KCR’S third front plan was aimed at weakening the Congress and benefit the BJP. “There are at least three investigations by the CBI pending against KCR. If he goes against the wishes of the BJP, the Centre would start hounding him with the CBI cases,” Reddy said.
Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu will leave for Bengaluru at 9am on Wednesday to attend the oathtaking ceremony. JD (S) chief HD Deve Gowda had called up both Rao and Naidu to invite them. Politics, they say, often makes for strange bedfellows. Jayaprakash Narayan might have lead a fight against the Congress nationally, but in Karnataka, full page advertisements for the swearing in of the H D Kumaraswamy lead JD(S) – Congress coalition have seen saw the ‘Lok Nayak’ sharing space with UPA Chairperson Sonia, BSP supremo Mayawati, Congress President Rahul Gandhi and JD(S) leader Deve Gowda.
While the BJP has decried this as a betrayal of JP’S ideals, the JD(S) says JP would also have done what it did the same to “save democracy from communalism.”