New Delhi: TelanganaRashtraSamithi (TRS) president and chief minister of Telengana K Chandrasekhar Rao has invited the heads of several regional parties to a much-publicised event at Hyderabad on May 10. This has been looked upon as stepping up his efforts to launch a federal front as an alternative to the Congress and BJP at the Centre.
Among those invited by Rao, also the chief minister of Telangana, are Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam working president MK Stalin, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, BijuJanata Dal president Naveen Patnaik, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha leader HemanthSoren and Samajwadi Party head AkhileshYadav.
“These dignitaries will attend the launch of RythuBandhu, a prestigious programme of the chief minister that has attracted nationwide attention. Invitations are being extended to other regional party heads too,” a spokesperson in the chief minister’s office said.
Under the RythuBandhu scheme, around 5.8 million farmers will get Rs 4,000 per acre of land during the kharif and rabi seasons. The agriculture department has identified nearly 14.21 million acres of cultivable land for the scheme, and the total expenditure in this regard is likely to come up to Rs 5,685 crore per season. The government made a budgetary allocation of Rs 12,000 crore for the scheme this year.
The invitation to regional party leaders is aimed at consolidating the TRS chief’s efforts to form a federal front ahead of the next LokSabha polls. After meeting Banerjee, Soren, former Chhattisgarh chief minister AjitJogi and Janata Dal(Secular) president DeveGowda last month, Rao spent the first two days of this week negotiating with DMK patriarch Karunanidhi as well as other party leaders such as Stalin, TR Balu, A Raja and Kanimozhi in Chennai.
Meanwhile, AkhileshYadav will touch down in Hyderabad on Wednesday to work out the modalities of the proposed federal front. The TRS government has planned a grand reception for the Samajwadi Party leader on the occasion.
Besides RythuBandhu, Rao is expected to give his invitees the lowdown on several flagship programmes of his government – including the Mission Bhagiratha (which aims to provide drinking water to every household) and the Kaleshwaram scheme (said to be the biggest lift-irrigation project in the country).
“The objective of these invitations is to bring the nation’s attention not only to Telangana’s developmental programmes but also to Rao, who aims to emerge as a national leader in the near future,” a party leader said on the condition of anonymity