Lok Sabha elections 2019: KCR hits mute on federal front plan after exit poll projects clear win

A little after exit polls projected an easy win for his party in Telangana and the ruling NDA in Delhi on Sunday evening, K Chandrasekhar Rao summoned his team of senior Telangana Rashtra Samithi, or TRS, leaders in state capital Hyderabad. Exit polls had projected that the TRS he had founded would sweep the elections, cornering 13-14 of Telangana’s 17 seats in the Lok Sabha.

The TRS leaders discussed the post-results scenario in the state. K Chandrasekhar Rao told his party leaders that the exit polls had underestimated the party’s victory and told them that the TRS would outperform the predictions.

“The chief minister was confident that the TRS would win 16 out of the 17 Lok Sabha seats in the state,” a TRS leader familiar with the development told HT.

But this time, KCR – as the chief minister is popularly referred to - did not say a word about the federal front that he had been hoping to stitch in Delhi. Something similar to the role that his rival from neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, N Chandrababu Naidu, seeks to play as he flies between Kolkata, Delhi and Lucknow for now.

KCR had never made a secret of his aspirations in national politics after his party swept the 2018 state elections. It would also give his son KT Rama Rao, who he had simultaneously upgraded as the party’s working president, a free hand to run the state.

“In national politics too, Telangana will have an important role to play. We are going to play a crucial role in national politics, we will give new definition to a new national scenario,” KCR had told his supporters in his first speech after results for the December 7 assembly elections were declared. The TRS had secured 88 seats in the 110-member assembly.

But KCR, who was aspiring to emerge as the kingmaker in the national elections, has had less than consistent track record in promoting the front. He was also seen to be a little too ambitious, advocating a non-BJP, non-Congress front when this front did not really have the numbers on its side.

If the national election results are anywhere close to exit poll predictions – some even gave the BJP 300 plus seats – there may not be much of a role for KCR.

TRS sources, however, insist that KCR hadn’t given up on the outreach for the federal front and was also planning to go to Bengaluru to meet Janata Dal (S) chief HD Deve Gowda and his son HD Kumaraswamy. However, Gowda during his visit to Tirumala on Saturday, has already made it clear that he had chosen his side and would stick with the Congress-led coalition at the state and at the Centre.

“So far”, the TRS leader said, “there is no indication from the TRS chief as to what role he is going play at the national level. He will take a call only after the results are declared”.