A day after meeting former prime minister and Janata Dal Secular (JDS) leader HD Deve Gowda and Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy in Bengaluru, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief N Chandrababu Naidu is slated to meet Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) chief MK Stalin in Chennai on Friday.
Chandrababu Naidu is meeting leaders of several opposition parties in a bid to unite them against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
During his meeting with Deve Gowda and Kumaraswamy on Thursday, Chandrababu had called for opposition unity to oust the BJP-led NDA government at Centre. The meeting, which was held at Deve Gowda’s residence in the city’s south-western suburb, lasted for about an hour.
Speaking to reporters after meeting the JDS leaders, Naidu had said, “The meeting with former Prime Minister Deve Gowda and Karnataka Chief Minister Kumaraswamy was an initial exercise to unite the opposition parties.”
Naidu is trying to form an alliance comprising different regional parties. He had said on Thursday that the opposition parties would work together to “save” democracy in India, accusing the central government of “destroying” institutions like the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
The Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister also informed mediapersons that he had already held talks with Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati, confirming that he would meet Stalin on Friday.
Naidu had also reached out to the Congress party, terming the grand old party as “the main anchor”, even as he ducked a question on the prime ministerial face of the united opposition.
The TDP chief had last week met Congress president Rahul Gandhi in the national capital on November 1. It is yet to be seen if Naidu would be able to form a united opposition, which would oppose the ruling BJP in the 2019 General Elections.
Source: Zee News