By IANS,
New Delhi : Shocked over its Third Front partner the Telangana Rashtriya Samiti (TRS) joining the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), the Communist Party of India (CPI) Sunday termed it as “a betrayal of secular parties”.
“It is unfortunate… It is a betrayal of people of Telengana… It is a betrayal of the secular parties and people who supported the TRS during the elections,” said Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy, deputy general secretary of the CPI.
“If he wanted to join the NDA, he should have done it before the elections. But his decision to join the NDA is not a jolt to us,” Reddy told IANS on phone from Hyderabad.
The TRS, fighting for a separate Telangana state in Andhra Pradesh, Sunday formally joined the NDA at a public rally in Ludhiana while the party had contested the elections in partnership with the Left-led Third Front in the state.
TRS chief K. Chandrashekhar Rao, who earlier announced his party’s intention to join the NDA fold, was also at the rally that is being viewed as NDA’s show of strength before the final phase of the elections May 13.
Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) politburo member M.K. Pandhe said it remained to be seen “how long will Chandrasekhar Rao remain with the BJP”.
“They (TRS) worked with the Congress. Now we want to see how long will they remain with the BJP,” Pandhe said.
The TRS was with the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government but after many flip-flops over the Telengana issue, the TRS finally walked out of the UPA fold. It then went with the Left-led Third Front. It joined the NDA after the BJP stated that it favours smaller states.
Pandhe said “more like-minded parties” in the BJP – and the Congress-led alliances – would join the Third Front after the election results are out.
“We expect Nitish Kumar (Bihar chief minister and Janta Dal-United leader) to join us. He is a socialist…he opposed Ram temple…and he even didn’t allow Narendra Modi to campaign in Bihar,” Pandhe said.
However, Nitish Kumar Sunday swept aside all speculation of his switching sides and attended the NDA rally at Ludhiana.