India
Jaganmohan is all set to take on Chandrababu Naidu and the TRS that defeated the TDP-Congress alliance in Telangana with a massive mark. It looks like good news for YSRP in Andhra Pradesh
Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao's (KCR) son KT Rama Rao (KTR) met Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRP) chief Jaganmohan Reddy at the latter's house on Wednesday hinting at an alliance.
KTR was at the leader of the Opposition in Andhra Pradesh, Jaganmohan's Lotus Pond residence in Hyderabad to discuss about the non-BJP, non-Congress federal front.
There are speculations that if all goes well, YSRP and Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) may fight this year’s Assembly elections together in Andhra Pradesh.
Chandrababu Naidu, the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh is the arch rival of both Jaganmohan's YSRP and TRS parties. This is the first direct talk between the two leaders after Telangana was declared a separate state from Andhra Pradesh in 2014.
The efforts to form a federal front against Congress and BJJP are given a serious thought by the TRS after a meeting with West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on January 10 to discuss the same.
Meetings have also been held with Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik, Janata Dal (Secular) leader and former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda, former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav and DMK leader MK Stalin in Tamil Nadu.
Speaking about Andhra Pradesh, Jaganmohan is trying hard to defeat Naidu and on January 9 had completed his 3,650-km 'Praja Sankalpa Yatra' foot march in Andhra Pradesh that started on November 6, 2017. He covered 134 constituencies in all 13 districts of the state.
The TDP is in alliance with the Congress in Andhra Pradesh. Both the parties had contested elections together in Telangana too, but won only 21 seats against TRS's 88.
During the foot march, Jaganmohan had also said that they (TRS) are 17 and we (YSRP) are 25 and together we are about 42. That is a sufficient number to put pressure at the Centre and can be a game changer.
The rivalry between Naidu and YSRP have been for decades. Naidu had become the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh for the first time in 1995 and ruled the state till 2004. But he was defeated by Jaganmohan's father YSR Reddy who was the chief minister of Andhra from 2004 to 2009.
But Naidu came back as the chief minister in 2014 and is vying for the seat in 2019 too.
Now, Jaganmohan is all set to take on Naidu this time and the TRS that has already defeated TDP-Congress alliance in Telangana with a massive mark looks like good news for YSRP in Andhra Pradesh.
However, both Jaganmohan and KTR have not announced any official statement regarding their meeting.
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