'Busy' Stalin takes U-turn on meeting KCR

Chennai: With a little over two weeks left for the Lok Sabha 2019 election results to be declared, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekar Rao has started making moves as he aims to emerge as the kingmaker in the likely scenario that neither the BJP nor the Congress get a clear majority on their own.

To this effect, the TRS chief met Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday.

But it would not be all smooth sailing for him as DMK on Tuesday indicated that its party chief MK Stalin may not meet KCR on May 13 as planned earlier.

Sources close to the DMK president said Stalin was 'busy' with his campaign schedule for the May 19 by-polls to four constituencies in the state and declined to divulge more details.

Earlier, a statement from the Telangana Chief Minister's Office (CMO) had said that KCR would meet the DMK chief at his residence in Chennai on May 13.

The TRS chief has been proposing a non-BJP, non-Congress Federal Front at the Centre. As part of his plan, KCR has embarked on a tour of Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

The Telangana CM is hoping that both the DMK and the JDS join the Federal Front in a post-poll scenario, where regional parties would emerge as the key players.

However, DMK later entered into a poll pact with the Congress and faced the April 18 Lok Sabha polls in the state in alliance with the national party as part of a mega coalition that also includes the Left.

The DMK's move is perceived as a signal to KCR that it was keen to carry on its alliance with the Congress even after the results of the seven-phase polling are out on May 23.