Intensifying efforts to cobble up a broad coalition of Opposition parties to take on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of the 2024 Parliamentary election, Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao, who met with Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and Nationalist Congress party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar in Mumbai on Sunday, called for “a big change” in the way the country was currently being run by the BJP-led Centre.
Mr. Rao, who is president of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) – the dominant party in the southern Indian state of Telangana - met with Mr. Thackeray at the latter’s official residence ‘Varsha’ over lunch today during his day-long visit.
“I am very happy meeting with Uddhav Thackeray... We spoke at length on a number of issues and agreed on almost all points…we spoke on the need to intensify the country’s progress, to bring changes, to increase development and to bring about structural changes in policies… There needs to be a big change in the way the country is being run today. We will be talking with other regional parties as well in the coming days. We want to fight against injustice, we are fighting for democracy. Today is a new beginning,” Mr. Rao said, speaking to reporters after a two-hour meeting with Mr. Thackeray in which the Sena’s chief spokesperson Sanjay Raut was also present.
