Taking a major step in forging opposition unity and take on the Narendra Modi-government, Telangana chief minister and Telangana Rashtra Samithi founder-president K Chandrashekar Rao met his Maharashtra counterpart and Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray and NCP supremo Sharad Pawar in Mumbai on Sunday and decided to bring in people of same wavelength under one umbrella ahead of 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
While KCR had a luncheon meeting with Thackeray at Varsha, his official bungalow in Malabar Hill, he had evening tea with Pawar at the latter’s Silver Oak bungalow in Breach Candy. “Good fruitful meetings have been held and we will keep meeting in the days ahead,” he said.
“We are into the 75 years of Independence but facing a lot of issues…all should coexist in harmony…We would be speaking to various national and regional leaders…we have new hopes, new aspirations and new agenda…we will involve all with the same wavelength,” Rao said.
When asked whether an anti-BJP front was possible without Congress, he said, “We have just started the process and in the days ahead, we will meet others also.”
A meeting of all anti-BJP leaders and non-BJP chief ministers is expected in Baramati, the hometown of Pawar, in the days to come.
“We will discuss with parties and may meet at Baramati. Those who want to join us will work together…we will present our agenda and time table, said KCR after his whirlwind tour of Mumbai.
The Shiv Sena and NCP along with Congress are partners in the Maha Vikas Aghadi in Maharashtra that has kept the BJP out of power.
During his meeting with Thackeray, KCR invited him to visit Hyderabad. “We are brothers…we share a 1,000 km boundary,” he said, pointing out that Maharashtra is a land of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and Balasaheb Thackeray and many movements have started from this soil.
Rao also expressed concern over the central agencies being “badly used” by the BJP-led NDA dispensation to target political opponents. “This is not good, they would suffer,” he said.
Thackeray too lashed out at the BJP albeit without naming its leaders. “Our Hindutva is not about revenge. Politics of revenge was neither Hindutva nor Indian culture, and that the situation needed to change…what would be the future of India if such a situation continues. Instead of speaking on development issues during their tenure, lies and misinformation are spread about the political opponents,” he said.
Pawar said that what is more important today is development. “Whenever politicians meet we discuss politics, yhje country is facing issues like unemployment, poverty, farmers deaths and other issues in the country that need to change," he said, adding that we have to look ahead.
Rao thanked Pawar saying that the latter had supported the Telangana movement and he thanked the senior politician on behalf of people of his state. "Pawar saheb is a senior leader...he was once the youngest chief minister and till now he has played a major role," he added.
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