Telangana CM to meet DMK President Stalin in Chennai today

The meeting between the two South political bigwigs, the Telangana Chief Minister, TRS K Chandrasekhar Rao and the DMK President M K Stalin is to be held at Stalin’s residence in Chennai, today at 4 pm. The meeting between the two leaders comes days after the DMK had called off the earlier scheduled meeting, citing Stalin’s campaign commitments for the by-elections to four constituencies in Tamil Nadu.

The DMK had earlier attempted to play down the meeting, terming it as a ‘courtesy.’ But, this is the second meeting between the two leaders in just over a year. KCR met Stalin in April 2018 over his Federal Front idea. With the second meeting to be held now, the revival of KCR’s ambitious Federal Front, a coalition of non-BJP and non-Congress parties at the Centre has received a boost, as he meets regional leaders across the Southern states.

The Telangana Chief Minister had met Kerala CM and CPI (M) leader Pinarayi Vijayan in Thiruvananthapuram on May 6. KCR has also planned to meet Karnataka CM AND JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy, following which he meets the Trinamool Congress leader and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, whereas YSRCP leader Jagan Mohan Reddy is already part of KCR’s Federal Front.

When the Congress reached out to both TRS and YSRCP for informal talks to discuss a post-poll alliance recently, both TRS and YSRCP remained non-committal, asking Congress leaders to wait until the election results which will be announced on May 23.