KCR’s third front idea strikes a chord
hyderabad — Telangana Chief Minister and TRS President K. Chandrashekhar Rao, who has mooted the idea of a third front and offered to lead it, on Monday unveiled plans to conduct a series of meetings across the country to prepare a national agenda.
Rao is chalking out a programme to hold meetings with organisations, associations and retired bureaucrats. According to the chief minister’s office, he will first meet the retired All India Service Officers like IAS, IPS, IFS and IRS.
As these retired officers have seen political developments closely at state and all India level, meeting with them will be highly useful, the office said.
Rao is also expected to meet retired defence personnel and officers; legal luminaries; farmers’ associations and employees’ associations of all states; and economists and retired finance secretaries. “These meetings will be followed with meetings with media houses, journalists, industrial houses, labour organisations, and so on one after another,” the office said.
These meetings will be organised in Hyderabad, New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Calcutta and Bengaluru. Rao’s idea of a front to provide an alternative to both the BJP and Congress, has already received support from West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) president Asaduddin Owaisi and actor-politician Pawan Kalyan.
The TRS leader claimed that six to seven MPs from Maharashtra also telephoned him to convey their support.
Stating that both the BJP and Congress failed the people, he said there was a need for qualitative change in Indian politics.
Calling for amendments to the Constitution to facilitate higher economic growth, he demanded that the Centre should transfer subjects like education, health, urban development, rural roads, reservation to the states.
He addressed on Sunday a large number of TRS workers and representatives of various organisations who had gathered at his official residence Pragati Bhavan to declare their support for his plans to cobble up a third front as an alternative to both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress.
KCR, as Rao is popularly known, told the gathering that his mere call for a qualitative change in the national politics received support from
Kcr has the capacity, capability and and acceptance. he has given the best governance in Telangana during the last four years and made Telangana a progressive and number one state in the country
Asaduddin Owaisi, MIM chief
I have been receiving phone calls since morning as people are extending their support to my effort
K. Chandrashekhar Rao, Telangana CM
all four corners of the country. “I have been receiving phone calls since morning as people are extending their support to my effort.”
The TRS chief said West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee spoke to him over phone to convey that she will fully support him.
“Six to seven MPs from Maharashtra also called me. They said they will resign from their party the day you make a beginning,” he said without revealing the names of the party they belong to.
KCR said the country needs drastic changes in its political system and amendments in its Constitution to realise its full potential and grow at par with countries like China, Japan and Singapore.
He alleged that both the BJP and Congress, who ruled for most of the time since independence, had miserably failed to address real issues of people, and unless an alternative emerges the country will continue to have the same politics of allegations and counter-allegations.
“Even after 70 years of our independence, farmers continue to commit suicide,” he said while blaming the faulty policies pursued by the two parties.
Without naming any party, he said people are divided in the name of religion and caste, thereby weakening the country.
Stating that the federalism exists only on paper, he demanded that subjects like agriculture, health and education should be transferred to the states. He alleged that these subjects are deliberately kept with the Centre so that the ruling parties continue to play petty politics. “What the prime minister has to do with the rural roads,” he asked in a dig at Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna, a central scheme.
He reiterated the demand that the Centre should transfer the subject of reservation to the states as they were providing quota in their jobs and educational institutions. “Eighty-five per cent of Telangana’s population comprises backward classes, scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and minorities. How do I satisfy them with 50 per cent reservation?” he said while calling for real cooperative federalism. —