Assembly election results 2018: KCR 2.0 and his national ambitions
K Chandrasekhar Rao
"KCR will continue to be chief minister, but play a national role," said parliamentarian and K Chandrasekhar Rao's daughter K Kavitha hours after Telangana Rashtra Samithi trounced Congress-led Mahakutami (Grand Alliance) in the Telangana Assembly elections.
"We will go wider, we will go to national politics. Tomorrow, we will certainly declare a national agenda and there is a need for a national alternative," Kavitha said.
KCR has often talked about his national ambitions and how both the BJP and Congress-led alliances have undermined the rights of states by wresting all powers with the Centre.
Rao's decision to dissolve the House in September, several months before its tenure was to end, and go for an early electionis being seen as a masterstroke, but what kind of role KCR will play in uniting the anti-Congress, anti-BJP forces ahead of parliamentary elections in 2019?
While the TDP chief and KCR's Andhra Pradesh counterpart, Chandrababu Naidu, has been playing a key role in finding a common ground among the opposition forces and unifying the anti-BJP parties, including the Congress, ahead of parliamentary polls, KCR's stand has always been about creating an anti-Congress and anti-BJP coalition government at the Centre by uniting all the regional parties.
Naidu was crisscrossing the country trying to stitch together a Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance). Now, various political leaders who got pictures taken at the 'Naidu-sponsored' Opposition meet will not be keen to be seen with him. With Naidu’s embarrassing defeat in KCR's home-turf, whether the Andhra CM can continue to be the same unifying force that he was a few days ago is doubtful.
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On the other hand, with Telangana firmly under his belt, KCR could very well seek greater space for himself in national politics should a non-BJP, non-Congress front materialise amid growing aspirations of regional parties eyeing a piece of New Delhi's power pie.
(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)