H D Kumaraswamy backs Telangana CM KCR, says his experience urgently needed on national scene

JD(S) leader and former Karnataka CM H D Kumaraswamy has backed K Chandrashekar Rao's idea of an alternative front in national politics, while adding that he should “play a key role.”

Kumaraswamy also welcomed KCR's plans to launch a national party soon.

In a tweet after emerging out of the talks with KCR over Karnataka, Telangana and national issues, Kumaraswamy announced that “KCR will take a plunge into national politics around 2023 Karnataka assembly elections and before Vijayadashami festival.”

Kumaraswamy arrived in Hyderabad on Sunday and held a three-hour discussion with Rao over lunch at the CM's official residence Pragathi Bhavan. The meet comes as a follow up to the parleys in Bengaluru on May 26, the day when KCR skipped receiving Prime Minister Narendra Modi on a visit here and flew to the "Garden City" to confer with the Gowdas.

Speaking to reporters then, KCR hinted at a grand alliance of the opposition parties and announced that “you will receive sensational news after two, three months.”

Read | Will float national party soon, says Telangana CM KCR

Plowing on with his slogan of “BJP-mukt Bharat”, KCR was in Patna less than a fortnight back, soon after Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar broke ties with the BJP and formed a new government in alliance with the RJD.

“Our endeavor will be to unite all the opposition parties in the country,” Rao told reporters in Patna, even as he skirted a question if Kumar could become the PM face of the proposed alliance.

After the KCR-Kumaraswamy meet on Sunday, the CMO issued a press statement saying that “Kumaraswamy asserted that the immense experience of CM Rao, who achieved statehood by uniting all sections and moving forward in a democratic and peaceful manner, is urgently required to the nation in the prevailing situation.”

The two leaders, CMO said, stressed the need for unity of all alternative political forces “to safeguard the spirit of the country's democratic federalism.”

“Kumaraswamy said that KCR, who is leading Telangana on the path of progress fulfilling the people’s 60-year-old aspirations, should move forward to constitute an alternative front in the national politics and play a key role,” the CMO said adding that the JDS leader “welcomed that KCR will soon be announcing a national party.”