Telengana chief-minister Chandrasekhara Rao is to meet DMK’s working president M.K. Stalin today in Chennai to take forward the ‘non-BJP, non-Congress third front’ proposal that he mooted some months back as a national-level alternative to the two national parties.

 It may be recalled that both the BJP and the Congress are heavily dependent on regional parties in many States where they forge an alliance during Lok Sabha polls to ensure that votes are not split.  Rao, who also heads the ruling Telengana Rashtriya Samiti (TRS) in Telengana, mooted the proposal of forging a third front at national level comprising parties opposed to both the BJP and the Congress.

 West Bengal chief-minister and Trinamool Congress president Mamata Banerjee endorsed this idea and held talks with Rao in this regard a few weeks back.  Mamata also spoke to Stalin on phone and reportedly got a positive feedback from the latter. Rao also met former prime-minister and JD(S) chief Deve Gowda to get his support on forming the third front.

Stalin is scheduled to meet Rao this afternoon at his Chennai residence.  Rao’s visit, which has been scheduled exclusively for his meeting with Stalin, hasn’t gone down well with Congress which appears ‘disturbed’ by the talks as the party has been an ally of the DMK for more than a decade.  Rao is also likely to call on DMK president M. Karunanidhi who remains indisposed for more than a year now.

Rao, who is likely to remain in Chennai till Monday evening, said that he differed with Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s view that a strong federal Govt. can’t be formed by regional parties.  “I’d make best possible efforts in this regard and would soon be meeting Odisha chief-minister Naveen Patnaik and Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav,” Rao exuded confidence.