‘Regional parties have no national perspective’: Khuntia

Hyderabad: A senior Congress leader on Monday took aim at regional parties, claiming they lacked national perspective and arouse local feelings to capture power.

"All regional parties are formed only to protect regional interests; basically all regional parties are created without having a national perspective, or national strategy," the AICC in-charge of the party affairs in Telangana, R C Khuntia said.

He made the comment when asked for his views on the efforts of Telangana Chief Minister and TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao to forge a non-Congress, non-BJP federal front of regional parties. "They (regional parties) have regional strategy...strategy is to capture power, fight the election and create more regional feelings so that it (electoral verdict) will go in their favour," Khuntia told PTI.

"So, after being elected (in Telangana)... (TRS) telling that in national interest, we (regional parties) are uniting...it has no relevance, and I think KCR (K Chandrasekhar Rao) will not succeed," he said.

Alleging that KCR was "not anti-BJP" and was "working as the 'B' team of (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi", Khuntia noted that the TRS chief had supported the NDA on "every issue", including demonetisation, GST and presidential and vice-presidential elections.

"There is no justification for the federal front. What they (TRS) are telling 'national interest' (to forge such a front) is wrong," he said.

In the December 7 polls to the 119-member Telangana Assembly, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) returned to power with 88 seats, pushing the Congress to a distant second position with 19.

The Congress had formed 'Prajakutami' (People's front) along with the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), the Telangana Jana Samiti (TJS) and the Communist Party of India (CPI) to take on the TRS, but the grouping came a cropper at the hustings.

The TDP led by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu bagged just two seats, while both the TJS and CPI drew a blank.

Asked if the Prajakutami would continue for the Lok Sabha elections, Khuntia said, "It is (the alliance) continuing. We have not taken any decision to dissolve it".

"Now with the TDP and CPI, we have an alliance at the national level. So virtually at the national level, they are already in the joint action programme of the Congress," he said.

CPI General Secretary Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy said the issue of whether to continue with the alliance or not for the Lok Sabha elections was yet to be discussed among the partners. "Right now, the front continues. For the Lok Sabha elections, it may continue," he said.