Hyderabad: Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao and his family boarded a special flight to Tiruchirappalli in Tamil Nadu today, according to government sources.
According to reports, KCR will do a special puja at the Sriranganathaswamy temple in Srirangam on Tuesday, December 14, and will also meet with Tamil Nadu chief minister M K Stalin. KCR is visiting Srirangam for the second time this year. He previously visited the shrine in May 2019.
The meeting between Telangana chief minister KCR and Stalin, whose party, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), is a component of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), is significant in light of Telangana’s disagreement with the NDA government over paddy procurement.
Stalin wrote to his counterparts in 11 non-BJP-ruled states, including Telangana, in October, asking for their cooperation in opposing the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test and restoring “the primacy of states” in education.
When KCR was in opposition in 2019, he met with Stalin as part of his failed attempt to form a non-BJP, non-Congress front. He also met with West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chairman Mamata Banerjee, Odisha chief minister and Biju Janata Dal chief Naveen Patnaik, former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda of the Janata Dal-Secular, and Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party.
TRS recently joined a meeting of opposition parties called by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to address the suspension of 12 Rajya Sabha members for the duration of the winter session. Because of the competition between the Congress and the TRS in Telangana, the TRS’ attendance at the gathering drew notice. This rivalry has been exacerbated by Revanth Reddy’s recent nomination as president of the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC).
Earlier in October, TRS working president KT Rama Rao stated a group of party officials will travel to Tamil Nadu to study the DMK and AIADMK’s strong organisational structures since both parties have thrived in the state for years.
(With inputs from PTI)