Bengaluru, May 22: Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao will not attend the swearing-in ceremony of Janata Dal (Secular) chief HD Kumaraswamy tomorrow. Rao has chosen to meet Kumaraswamy on Tuesday, a day before the oath-taking ceremony. The Telangana CM is scheduled to travel to Bengaluru on Tuesday afternoon and will return to Hyderabad at night.  Some believe that KCR opted not to attend the ceremony as he does not want to share same space with Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi just months before General and Assembly elections.

Last month KCR held talks with Deve Gowda and Kumaraswamy to form a strong ‘federal front’ with General Elections 2019 in mind. However, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) taking a jibe at the idea of the ‘federal front’ said that it was nothing but opposition uniting against the party.

The Telangana unit of the Congress, however, accused KCR of supporting BJP. According to the Congress, the main reason of KCR for not attending the swearing-in ceremony is that he did not want to annoy the BJP.

The BJP has also hit out at the Telangana CM. "KCR supported JD(S), and now they are going with the Congress. The JD(S) and the Congress even chose Hyderabad to shelter their MLAs in a bid to prevent poaching, with TRS support. The TRS hidden agenda is exposed. The 'federal front' is nothing but parties uniting against the BJP. The TRS will become like the JD(S) here and help Congress,” reported Hindustan Times quoting Telangana BJP president K Laxman as saying.

Besides the Congress leaders, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and BSP chief Mayawati will also attend the oath-taking ceremony. Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu are also invited to the ceremony.

Kejriwal and Banerjee are always the staunch critics of the BJP, but the swearing-in ceremony will give Chandrababu Naidu an opportunity to get recognition among the opposition parties. The Andhra Pradesh CM had quit BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) earlier this year.

 

 

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 22, 2018 08:40 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).