K Chandrashekar Rao led his party to a massive win in Telangana. (File)
K Chandrashekar Rao's party, Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), will reach out to Mamata Banerjee, Mayawati's BSP and Akhilesh Yadav's Samajwadi Party for its own federal front without the Congress, a senior party leader said today.
TRS deputy floor leader in the Lok Sabha, B Vinod Kumar, said his party has already "sold the idea" of a united front to the regional parties.
"Our thinking on this federal front is: All the regional parties who are powerful in their respective states should come together and their bargaining power will increase with either the Congress or the BJP only if we are united," he said.
"Otherwise, they -- Congress and BJP -- will deal with each political party in each state and dictate terms to other regional political parties," Mr Kumar argued.
While Mamata Banerjee is at the forefront of talks between the Congress and major regional parties for a pan-India anti-BJP alliance, Mayawati recently had a falling out with the Rahul Gandhi-led party during assembly election in Madhya Pradesh, where she accused the Congress of trying to finish the BSP by offering it less seats.
KCR had met Mamata Banerjee earlier this year.
Mayawati's party contested the election against the Congress in the three states - Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh - which were won by Mr Gandhi's party. She later extended support to the Congress that was a couple of seats shy of a simple majority in Madhya Pradesh.
Akhilesh Yadav's Samajwadi party had contested the UP polls in alliance with the Congress last year. However, when MK Stalin recently favoured Mr Gandhi for being the opposition's prime ministerial face, the party raised an objection.
"Now, day before yesterday, Mamata Banerjee, Samajwadi Party and Mayawati had distanced themselves from the Congress," B Vinod Kumar said, apparently referring to the oath taking ceremonies of the Congress chief ministers in the three states, which Mamata Banerjee, Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav chose to skip.
K Chandrashekar Rao led his party to a massive win in Telangana. After his win, he turned his attention to his new project -- a federal front without the BJP and the Congress. Even before the win, KCR had been working to stitch an alliance as he met several regional leaders.
The Federal Front -- where YSR Congress could take the space of a facilitator, like Chandrababu Naidu in the proposed Grand Alliance -- has got the backing of Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, whom KCR met in March this year.
Ms Banerjee is interested in forming an alliance of regional parties to leverage better bargaining power with the Congress, sources said.
With inputs from PTI