Chief Minister and Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) president K. Chandrasekhar Rao is unlikely to attend the meeting of Opposition leaders convened by his West Bengal counterpart and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee to discuss Presidential election at New Delhi on Wednesday, further, it is also unclear whether Mr. Rao will at least depute any leader to represent the party.
Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao was huddled in a meeting with senior leaders of TRS till late on Tuesday night to discuss the pros and cons of party’s representation, having already already conveyed to Ms. Banerjee that he will not attend if the Congress was to take part. Sources said Mr. Rao’s response to Ms. Banerjee’s invitation was on expected lines because the former had been playing an active role in national politics by trying to mobilise the support of anti-BJP and anti-Congress parties in a bid to ensure the emergence of a new regime that gave the country a different model of development.
They added that Mr. Rao wanted a meeting of regional parties prior to consultations with national parties on a united candidate of Opposition to contest President election but Ms. Banerjee expressed reservation for reasons of paucity of time. However, Mr. Rao was not convinced, sources said.
Mr. Rao’s decision to abstain also stemmed from his plans to float a party at the national level days ahead of the national executive meeting of the BJP in Hyderabad . A broad discussion on his plans was made a few days ago with TRS leaders but nothing concrete emerged from it. Some names like Bharat Rashtra Samithi were made public for the new outfit later but it was also not clear whether the TRS will be dissolved in the process.
It was said that Mr. Rao will take the view of the State executive of TRS on June 19 before adopting a resolution and sending it to the Election Commission for incorporation of the new party. He will leave for New Delhi thereafter to consult likeminded parties on the choice of their Presidential candidate.
