TDP, TRS may scuttle Congress entry in 3rd front

Hyderabad: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee is intensifying efforts to form a third front but the inclusion of the Congress will not go down well in the two Telugu states.

Ms Banerjee wants all regional parties in the country plus the Congress to be part of the third front but this is anathema to the Telugu Desam in Andhra Pradesh and the Telangana Rashtra Samithi in Telangana, where the Congress is the arch rival and the main opposition contender.

Neither the TD nor TRS will compromise with the Congress. The Telugu Desam party has been anti-Congress since its inception in 1982. After the bifurcation of the state, the Congress has not made much headway in the new AP. The TD has had alliances with several political parties in its long career but never with the Congress. Though, when the United Front government took power at the Centre, it took the outside support of the Congress. TD chief and AP chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu was the convenor of the front.

Ms Banerjee and former Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren are moving close to the Congress now, which is not acceptable to Mr Naidu and Telangana’s K. Chandrasekhar Rao.

Mr Soren met Mr Rao to discuss the third front. Speaking to a news channel later, he said that he is with the UPA led by the Congress and added that it is premature to think about a front without the Congress.