Telangana Rashtriya Samithi (TRS) president and chief-minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao met his West Bengal counterpart and Trinamool Congress president Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata today as part of his ongoing efforts to form a ‘third front’.

Rao, who romped home to a mammoth victory in the Assembly polls held few weeks back, had a one-to-one meeting with his Odisha counterpart and Biju Janata Dal (BJD) president Biju Patnaik at Bhubaneswar on Sunday. Rao is attempting to form a viable and strong ‘third front’ (read: federal front) comprising non-Congress, non-BJP parties to give the two national parties a tough run at the ensuing Lok Sabha polls.

After meeting Patnaik, Rao flew to Kolkata by a specially chartered flight (which he has hired for a month for his political endeavours as well as visit to various shrines) and had an hour-long meeting with Mamata Banerjee at the latter’s office. After the meeting, Rao told newspersons that the session went off ‘very well’. “The discussions were pleasant…we sure will come out with a concrete plan soon,” he assured.

Both Patnaik and Mamata have, however, not committed themselves to joining the ‘federal front’ floated by Rao. A spokesman of the Trinamool Congress played down Rao’s meeting with the chief-minister stating ‘everybody wants to meet her (Mamata) these days,” which is a clear reference to the stance taken by the TMC to KCR’s overtures.