Telangana CM KCR Plots His Foray In To National Politics With A New Formation, Prashant Kishor To Help Strategise

Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) met noted election strategist Prashant Kishor at Pragati Bhavan on Sunday (Jun 12).

The duo reportedly discussed the strategy to be adopted by KCR as part of his planned foray into national politics. KCR is toying with the idea of launching a new outfit or rechristening his regional party TRS as "Bharatiya Rashtra Samithi" in a move aimed at catapulting himself to the centre-stage of national politics.

KCR's nephew and state finance minister T Harish Rao was also present at the meeting.

KCR also is said to have received inputs from Kishor on the challenges that TRS is likely to encounter in the next assembly elections in the state, given the formidable political challenge that the opposition BJP is expected to pose.

According to party insiders, Kishor and his team recently conducted a quick survey on TRS prospects in the next elections and the impact of various welfare and development schemes taken up by the TRS government on the electorate. Kishor is likely to have shared his survey findings with KCR during the meeting.

KCR was also closeted for over six hours with his key cabinet colleagues and senior party leadership to finetune the strategy for his entry into national politics.

KCR, also the TRS chief, has repeatedly claimed that he has been working to bring together various non-BJP parties against the saffron party's alleged anti-people policies and to usher in a "qualitative change" in the country.

KCR has met with regional CMs like Mamata Banerjee, MK Stalin, Uddhav Thackeray and Hemant Soren, besides ormer PM HD Deve Gowda and ex CMs HD Kumaraswamy and Akhilesh Yadav, where he had discussed the possibility of floating a new federal front.

In April, TRS announced that it would work with Prashant Kishor-founded I-PAC to augment the party's efforts to reach out to the electorate.

In March, KCR said that Kishor is working with him to bring a 'parivartan' (change) to the entire country. He also added that they were working together in Telangana also. The Telangana CM had described Kishor as his best friend for the last seven-eight years and praised the latter for his commitment to a cause.

Earlier this year, it was speculated that Kishor was working on crafting an alliance between TRS and Congress. However, with Kishor announcing that he will not be working with Congress, the possibility of a political tie-up now appears to be remote.