Efforts to stich non-Cong, non-BJP front appear to be gaining momentum

Efforts to stich a non-Congress, non-BJP front appeared to be gaining momentum with the Trinamool Congress chief reaching out to the DMK, even as Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao continued to receive support for such a proposal.
Former Chhattisgarh chief minister Ajit Jogi today spoke to Rao over phone and expressed support for the plan to float a Third Front-like formation, the Telangana chief minister's office said in Hyderabad.
Rao, the leader of Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), had said two days ago that he was keen to engage himself in national politics to bring about a "change" and was in talks with others to form a platform of like-minded parties.

Several leaders, including West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi, former Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and two MPs from Maharashtra, have extended support to Rao's proposal.
The BJP and the Congress slammed the efforts of the Telangana chief minister.
Rao's office today said he was planning to initiate a consultation process from a national perspective to take his idea forward.

The Telangana chief minister's idea is that all those who have been thinking about the nation in various ways are to be made participants in the process of qualitative change in politics, his office said in a press release.

"To begin with, the chief minister will meet retired IAS, IPS, IFS and IRS officers, who were part of administration of the country at various levels and have had a lot of experience," the release said.
As these retired officers have seen political developments closely at state and all-India levels, Rao felt that meeting them would be highly useful, it added.
Rao is busy chalking out the programme and coordination work is going on for the successful conduct of these meetings.
The chief minister would also like to have a meeting with prominent retired defence personnel and officers, legal luminaries and farmers' associations from all states, it said.

According to the release, Rao also plans to have meetings with economists and retired finance secretaries of central government, followed by interactions with media houses, journalists, industrial houses and labour organisations.
The meetings will be organised in Hyderabad and as well as in New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and other places.
Rao's office today said in a press release that Ajit Jogi "told the chief minister that he will be with him in his efforts to form a front at the national level and expressed his willingness to join the front".
It quoted Jogi as telling Rao: "You (Rao) have proved to be a great leader and you will also prove to be a great leader in future."

Jogi also told Rao that he would get the support of "like-minded people" for the proposed front, it said.
Banerjee, the West Bengal Chief Minister, leaders of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and some other leaders have also expressed support to Rao's proposal to forge a non-Congress, non-BJP front, according to Telangana CMO sources.
Trinamool Congress MP Derek O'Brien today said in New Delhi that Banerjee has taken a lead in defeating the BJP by talking to 'federal' parties. "We are on track", he added.
He said after calling up Chandrasekhar Rao, Banerjee held telephonic conversation with DMK leader Stalin.
During the nearly 12-minute conversation, Banerjee told Stalin that a good show by the TMC and the DMK in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, respectively, would mean a block of nearly 75 MPs in Parliament, O'Brien said.

He said the West Bengal chief minister also spoke with Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray. The two leaders had been in touch with each other, he added.
Though Shiv Sena is part of the governments in Maharashtra and at the Centre, it has been critical of the BJP and its leadership.
There was "good coordination" between TRS, TDP, SP, BSP, TMC and DMK in Parliament on various issues today, O'Brien said.
Responding to a question, O'Brien rejected the suggestion that the Congress has been "excluded" from the grouping Mamata Banerjee is working on.
Rao on Saturday last had said, "From morning, I have been receiving many calls from various places in India. This afternoon West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee called me and said that I have taken the right decision and she will be supporting me and that we will go forward together."

Telangana BJP spokesperson Krishna Saagar Rao said Chandrashekhar Rao's pitch for a 'non-BJP, non-Congress front' at the Centre was aimed at "insuring himself against possible prosecution for corrupt practices".
"There is a possibility of investigation of some past and present corrupt practices by CM KCR (as the chief minister is popularly known)," Krishna Saagar Rao said.
Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president N Uttam Kumar Reddy has ridiculed Chandrashekhar Rao's plans to float such a front.
Reddy accused the chief minister of "enacting a drama" to divert attention of the people from "his failures".