KCR’s first meeting with PM in second term likely on Friday

Hyderabad, Oct 2 (SocialNews.XYZ) Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Friday, their first meeting since they won second term in the state and at the Centre, respectively.

KCR, as Rao is popularly known, will leave for the national capital on Thursday and meet the Prime Minister the next day, said officials on Tuesday.

This will be KCR's first meeting with Modi since Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) retained power at the Centre in May.

The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief, who had mooted the idea of Federal Front as an alternative to both BJP and Congress at the time of elections, has been avoiding Modi ever since the latter became Prime Minister for the second term. He stayed away from couple of meetings of Chief Ministers called by the Centre, including the one on the Maoist problem.

KCR, who had cordial relations with Modi during his first term, had targeted him during Lok Sabha polls in March and also earlier during the campaign for Assembly elections in December last year.

The coldness in the relations was visible after BJP-led NDA retained power at the Centre and the BJP made huge inroads in Telangana by winning four Lok Sabha seats. Since then, the BJP has gone aggressive in projecting itself as the alternative to the TRS.

KCR had said in June that he will maintain constitutional relations with the Modi government. He also made it clear that he is still stuck to his plans for Federal Front.

The TRS chief had also defended his decision not to invite Modi for the inauguration of Kaleswaharam, a mega irrigation projects across Godavari river. "Do we have to invite him for everything," asked KCR while slamming the Centre for not giving a single rupee for the prestigious project.

Speaking in the Assembly last month, the Chief Minister criticized Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah for making disparaging remarks about Telangana in the past.

Source: IANS