Alternate front: Mamata choses Naidu over Rao

Hyderabad, Oct 10: West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC chief, Mamata Banerjee has chosen Chandrababu Naidu over K Chandrashekhar Rao. She has invited Naidu to attend an anti-BJP rally in Kolkata.

However Rao was not invited for the event. This is an interesting development considering the fact that Rao and few months back pitched for an alternate front against the BJP and Congress. He had even met with the WB CM in this regard.

It is alleged that the decision to keep Rao out of the meet was taken as it is believed that he is cozying up to the BJP.

Ahead of the Telangana assembly elections 2018, it has been rumoured that the TRS led by Rao is in a secret pact with the BJP. This move by Mamata is a clear indicator that she trust Naidu as a better ally when compared to Rao.

When H D Kumaraswamy was sworn in as Karnataka Chief Minister, Mamata and Naidu were both present at the event along with a host of others from the opposition parties.

This development would be closely watched as many parties including the BSP and SP have said that they would not ally with the Congress for the upcoming assembly elections. This is also being seen as a pre-cursor to the 2019 alliances for the Lok Sabha polls.

Sources say that several regional players are playing their cards close to their chest. They do not want a front which has the Congress in it. Recently Mayawati had said that the Congress is hell bent upon ruining regional parties. The same was echoed by Akhilesh Yadav too.