KCR doing 'politics of division', helping BJP and others, accuses Congress

The Congress on Monday accused Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao of doing "politics of division" and of helping the BJP by proposing a non-Congress national front of other parties.

Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi made the remarks after Rao met Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Sunday and his West Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee on Monday in an effort to forge a non-BJP and non-Congress alliance.

Singhvi said the Congress will contest the 2019 Lok Sabha polls in an alliance with a number of other parties and emerge victorious.

"If you talk of exclusion and do not want to ally with those who want to ally with the Congress, then you are doing 'politics of division' and you want to help the ruling party... I don't think other parties will get trapped in this," he told reporters when asked about the TRS chief's proposal.

Singhvi said if one wants to keep the principal opposition party out of an alliance, "it becomes clear that they want to help someone else".

The Congress leader said his party did not have any problems with one political leader meeting another and that "everyone is free to meet anyone".

"You will see that the Congress will emerge victorious after it contests elections with many other parties," he said.

Rao met Banerjee on Monday and said efforts to cobble together a non-BJP and non-Congress alliance will continue. He claimed that very soon they will come out with a concrete plan for the Lok Sabha elections.

The TRS chief met the Trinamool Congress president a day after he met his Odisha counterpart and BJD president Naveen Patnaik, another strong regional leader.