TRS not averse to attend Sonia meet

Hyderabad: TRS is not averse to attend the all Opposition party meeting to be convened by UPA convenor Sonia Gandhi as the party leaders feel that sailing with the UPA would be better than the NDA keeping in mind the minority factor in Telangana.

The TRS leaders have been maintaining silence on whether Chief Minister and TRS chief K Chandrashekar Rao received the invitation letter from AICC chief Sonia Gandhi or not.

However, a section of TRS leaders feel that their party chief may not be averse to attending the meeting.

Though the TRS chief is advocating Federal Front, there are several factors which give indication that the TRS may attend the meeting to be convened by UPA chairperson on May 23, the day of results.

A senior TRS leader said that the fierce election campaign in which TRS chief KCR had targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi has led to creating a gap between both the leaders in the recent times.

It may be mentioned here that KCR had targeted Modi by stating that a person of the level of Prime Minister was telling lies and went on to say that Modi was a 'chillar prime minister' and also alleged that he was doing politics on religion.

Apart from this the minority vote bank is also making the TRS to tilt towards UPA. "There are 12 per cent minorities in Telangana. We have been fighting elections with the help of AIMIM and going towards BJP will make minorities unhappy," said the TRS leader.

Sources said that KCR was confident that the TRS would have a crucial role in the next government at the Centre. Sources also said that the TRS chief had gathered information from across the country and as per the inputs the BJP would lose about 80 to 100 seats compared to its previous strength.

The TRS president, during interaction with the TRS leaders, has been saying that BJP would not get enough numbers and it would fall short of majority.

The TRS chief is said to have acquired data pertaining to major constituencies on the chances of BJP and other parties in the country.

As per his reports, the BJP is likely to get only 30 seats in Uttar Pradesh, which is a key state for the saffron party in forming the government at the Centre during 2014 elections (where it won 74 out of 80 seats), sources said.

However, the TRS leaders said that a lot would depend on the results on May 23. When asked, former Karimnagar MP B Vinod Kumar said that the party has not received any letter from Sonia Gandhi.

When further asked whether the party would attend the meeting in case it receives the letter, Vinod said the party would take a decision when the letter is received.