Seeking front, K Chandrasekhar Rao reaches out to M K Stalin; DMK says discussed ‘dictatorial’ Centre

He had recently met West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to step up efforts for a proposed Federal Front.

Responding to a question if they were preparing to float a third front to help the BJP by splitting anti-government votes in the next Lok Sabha polls, Rao said they never talked of forming a third or fourth front.

“Please do not see it as pucca politics. This is not a mere alignment of political parties. It is going to be an alignment of many forces, peasants, students, all that,” he said, while claiming that the southern states were being ignored by the Centre.

Meanwhile, sources in the DMK said the meeting was nothing but a first step for the party to flex muscles to assert and remind the Congress about their bargaining power ahead of upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

Chandrashekar Rao was welcomed by DMK Working President MK Stalin on Sunday. (Source: DMK)

“We had discussions about (the) political scene, future situations emerging and how to handle with them. Protecting secular values, ensuring autonomy and powers of states, making certain subjects – such as education free from Centre’s clutches – and the increasingly dictatorial nature of the Centre, all have been discussed,” Stalin said, while not ruling out possibilities of more such meetings.

A DMK leader, without wishing to be named, said the party would benefit in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls even if the BJP does not make a come back at the Centre.

“But (the) Congress will be facing a tough situation if forces emerge outside the main opposition. Such meetings of regional leaders will force it to prepare for a larger democratic front sharing equal powers,” he said.

The DMK leader said there were hints that Congress may demand up to 15 seats in the next election from DMK in Tamil Nadu.

“For being generous in the last assembly polls and giving maximum seats to Congress, we (the DMK) had no major benefit. But by opening options for a third front at the national level, DMK has nothing to lose. We already have enough alliance parties in the state, including Vaiko’s MDMK and Dalit party VCK and Muslim parties, besides the Congress. We will win maximum seats with or without the Congress. But Congress that already faced a vertical split in the state about three years back will not survive in Tamil Nadu without the DMK. Maybe we are being loud about our capabilities by publicly talking to (K Chandrasekhar) Rao and Mamata (Banerjee),” he said.

DMK leaders T R Baalu and A Raja were also present in the Stalin-Rao meeting, sources said. TRS parliamentary party leader K Keshav Rao, Telangana Finance Minister Etela Rajender and MP Vinod Kumar were also present.

Earlier, Rao visited ailing DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi at his Gopalapuram residence, before attending a lunch hosted by Stalin in the honour of KCR.