KCR Knocks On MK Stalin's Door Again, Sources Say Wants Meet Tomorrow

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has sought another appointment with DMK chief MK Stalin on Monday as the mammoth seven phase Lok Sabha election draws to a close. The sixth phase is on today and there is just one more round to go.

Chandrababu Naidu's last effort to meet MK Stalin - to push his idea for a non-Congress, non-BJP Federal Front that can take power after the elections - did not come off too well. The DMK chief, who is in alliance with Congress, was busy campaigning.

Last week, Mr Rao who met his Kerala counterpart Pinarayi Vijayan, who admitted that the meeting was a "very important one". But he has not received much traction from other leaders. Even Pinarayi Vijayan had indicated that any decision can be taken only after the election results come out on May 23.

Sources close to the Telangana Chief Minister have ruled out the presence of KCR - as Mr Rao is popularly known in the state - in the big opposition meet between the final phase of elections and counting of votes.

Twenty-one anti-BJP opposition parties that are together at the national level are expected to meet on May 21, two days before the counting of votes, for a strategy session.

"We can't be on the same platform with Chandrababu Naidu, whom we are fighting in Andhra and Telangana," the sources said.

Mr Naidu has made it clear that he thinks any stable front in the country cannot be formed without the participation of the Congress or the BJP.

"In this country there are some political compulsions. Only one time, regional parties, rather the Third Front, dominated," he had told NDTV, referring to the United Front government, which came to power in 1996 with the outside support of the Congress.

"Today, either the BJP or the Congress has to support," said the former convenor of the United Front, who had put behind the decades-old rivalry with the Congress last year.

Still, the Federal Front idea has received some encouragement from Mamata Banerjee, who met KCR last year. In an interview to NDTV, she had indicated that talks with Mr Rao is on and he is expected to visit Bengal again.

Sources also said she is having second thoughts about attending the big opposition meeting in Delhi on May 21.