Day 1 of KCR tour: Delhi, AAP mohalla clinics, Akhilesh; next Punjab farmers

Sources said KCR was keen to visit a mohalla cinic as the Telangana government had launched a similar initiative known as basti dawakhanas in April 2018. Mostly located in slums, these clinics offer free medical services as well as medicines. Hyderabad now has over 100 such basti dawakhanas.

Earlier in the afternoon, KCR met former Uttar Pradesh chief minister and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav at the former’s residence in New Delhi.

KCR is on a national tour to meet leaders of regional parties as well as the family members of farmers who died during the farmers agitation against the Union government and the families of soldiers killed in the Galwan Valley. The TRS chief who is eyeing a national role is seeking opinions of regional party leaders on the formation of an alternative front without the Congress and the BJP, including on who will lead such an alliance.

Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Sri @YadavAkhilesh met Chief Minister Sri K. Chandrashekar Rao at his residence in New Delhi. The two leaders discussed current national issues. pic.twitter.com/eVKRymyFiE

— Telangana CMO (@TelanganaCMO) May 21, 2022

On May 22, KCR will visit Chandigarh. As announced earlier, he will meet families of the 600-odd farmers who died during the farmers agitation. He will distribute a Rs 3 lakh cheque each to the families, who belong to Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi. He will take up the cheque distribution along with Kejriwal and Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, also of the AAP.

On May 26, KCR will go on a Bengaluru visit and meet former prime minister HD Deve Gowda. He will go to Maharashtra’s Ralegan Siddi village on May 27 to meet social activist Anna Hazare. From there, he will go to Shirdi and offer prayers at the Saibaba temple before returning to Hyderabad. Later, KCR will tour West Bengal and Bihar on May 29 and 30. He will hand over financial aid to families of slain Galwan Valley soldiers.

This is the second time this year that the Telangana chief minister has visited New Delhi and other parts of the country. He spent the first week of March in the national capital and north India and met Chief Minister Hemant Soren and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha president Shibu Soren in Jharkhand. He also gave Rs 10 lakh each to the families of two soldiers—Kundan Kumar and Ganesh Hansda—who were killed in the Galwan Valley clash. He had announced ex gratia to all the 19 soldiers killed in the May 2020 border clash with Chinese troops.

KCR also met the BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy and farmers union leader Rakesh Tikait over lunch in New Delhi.

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KCR had earlier reached out to Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and his counterparts in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, MK Stalin and Mamta Banerjee. He is also in touch with JD(S) leader Deve Gowda and RJD leader and former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad.

Telangana Rashtra Samiti MPs Nama Nageshwar Rao, J Santosh Kumar, Ranjit Reddy, Venkatesh Neta, Minister V Prashant Reddy, MLA Dr M Anand accompanied the chief minister.