Is Opposition leader avoiding TRS chief’s meeting request?

Stalin was understood to have cold shouldered Rao who has reportedly planned to meet him in the city on May 13. The Telangana Chief Minister who met his Kerala counterpart Pinarayi Vijayan in this regard on Monday had planned to visit Stalin next week, as did he a few months ago to form a third front ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

Stalin, DMK sources said, was learnt to have cited the ongoing Assembly bypoll campaign to ‘deny’ an appointment to the Telangana Chief Minister. Curiously, no official word has come from either of the party on the proposed meeting thus far.

The Opposition party, in fact, was guarded in even responding to the reports suggesting a rendezvous between the two leaders. An outspoken DMK Rajya Sabha MP and organising secretary RS Bharati said, “As much as we know, no request has been received from them (TRS) to meet our leader (Stalin).” Asked if the DMK would engage the TRS chief, he said, “It should be answered by our party president,” before reiterating that there was no change in their stand. “We are committed to making Congress president Rahul Gandhi the next Prime Minister. Our leader has reiterated it already,” he added.

DMK’s decision to not engage KCR, sources say, was prompted as much by the tacit understanding between BJP and TRS as the Dravidian party’s projection of Rahul Gandhi as PM candidate.

“It is not just us. Even a few other regional parties suspect that TRS has a tacit understanding with the BJP. Possibility of a post-poll alliance between BJP and TRS cannot be ruled out. It was discussed even before polls,” said a DMK senior requesting anonymity. Another DMK insider not wishing to be named said that it was too early to speculate or commit to such a non-BJP, non-Congress possibility and it would be wise to wait for the results to assess the political possibilities.