With Congress-JDS alliance all set to form the Government in Karnataka, there were confusing signals on whether Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao will attend HD Kumaraswamy’s swearing in ceremony in Bengaluru or not.
Kumaraswamy personally spoke to KCR as well as Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu over phone and invited them to the ceremony to be held on May 23.
Though KCR had publicly appealed to the Telugu people in Karnataka to support Janata Dal Secular in the elections he has maintained stoic silence over the hung mandate as it led to formation of JDS-Congress alliance.
According to the sources in TRS when Kumaraswamy called KCR to invite he congratulated Karnataka leader and promised to attend the function. But many party leaders believe that he may not visit Bengaluru as the swearing in was of the JDS-Congress alliance and the Congress was his main and bitter opponent in the State.
TRS leaders recalled that KCR had met the JDS patriarch HD Deve Gowda in Bengaluru just before the elections to discuss his regional front idea and extended his full support to the JDS in the elections, he was not happy with the later turn of events leading to the formation of JDS Congress alliance.
Though many other regional satraps including West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Bannerji, former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, BSP President Mayawati were also likely to attend Kumarswamy’s swearing in, TRS leaders say that KCR attending the function will send a wrong signals. They say that KCR was pursuing the idea of a front of non BJP and non Congress front and attending the program in Bengaluru will not be helpful for his idea.
In contrast to the silence of the TRS, Telangana Congress was ebullient over the defeat of the BJP and victory of Congress-JDS alliance in the power struggle in neighboring Karnataka. State Congress president N Uttam Kumar Reddy described it “the beginning of Congress victory in 2019 elections”. He expressed confidence that what happened in Karnataka will help Congress in Telangana too. The failure of the BJP to form the government in Karnataka will boost the morale of Congress in Telangana, he said. “I salute the MlAs of Congress and JDS for saving democracy by not getting lured by the sops offered by the BJP”, he said.