Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has appealed to people not to interpret the conglomeration of parties that is in the offing to give a new direction to the country’s growth process as an anti-BJP or anti-Congress front.
“It is not a third front or fourth front. There is no front so far. Only time alone can tell what front our efforts lead to,” Mr. Rao said in a joint press conference with Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren at Ranchi on Friday.
Mr. Rao was in Ranchi on Friday to give away ex-gratia of ₹10 lakh each, announced by Telangana government, to families of 19 soldiers of the Indian Army killed in Chinese aggression in Galwan Valley two years ago.
He also said leaders of several parties were coming together to explore a new path of development for the country. The development agenda of parties in power post-Independence was misplaced. The neighbouring China and some other Asian countries were way ahead of India by development parameters. India fell behind because of misplaced priorities.
Hence, he said all parties that were coming together now had decided to make India a good nation which is many fold better than in the past. The parties were working out how the country could progress much better in every sector.
Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao said the leaders of all parties will meet shortly and finalise an agenda to achieve their goal of a new India. Some newness in policy making was required. “We will discuss what newness could be introduced,” It could not be done with one or two individual leaders. A collective action with wide ranging consultations was required.
Earlier, Mr. Rao arrived in Ranchi by a special flight from New Delhi where he camped since Monday. He drove straight to the statue of tribal icon of Jharkhand Birsa Munda and garlanded it before proceeding to the official residence of Mr. Hemant Soren. He took the blessings of Mr. Soren’s father and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha founder Shibu Soren. Mr. Rao recalled his association with Mr. Shibu Soren as Cabinet colleagues in UPA-I government and the latter’s participation in separate Telangana struggle steered by the TRS. Flexis with pictures of Mr. Rao and Mr. Hemant Soren were put up along the former’s route.
