HYDERABAD: TRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao’s efforts to build a national level anti-BJP and anti-Congress alternative gathered steam on Saturday with the two main Left parties in the country, the CPI and CPM, indicating that they were ready to back the Telangana Chief Minister in his endeavour.

The leaders of the two Left parties mooted for “BJP Mukt Bharat”, which was endorsed by Rao, according to sources. The TRS president held separate meetings with CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury and CPI general secretary D Raja at Pragathi Bhavan.

Rao meeting the Left leaders is being seen as a significant political development, which could potentially change the political alignments in the State too in the coming days.

The main point of discussion in the two meetings was the need to build an alternative to BJP at the national level.

“Chandrasekhar Rao stressed the need for a third alternative, as the Congress is not improving organisationally and is unable to effectively take on the BJP,” CPI state secretary Chada Venkata Reddy told Express.

BJP’s politics, a threat to country’s unity: Left

“We agreed to this. Our stand too is to build a secular, democratic and Left alternative to the BJP,” said Chada Venkata Reddy, who was present in the meeting. Rao had invited the top leaders of the CPM and CPI, who are in Hyderabad to attend their respective national level meetings, for discussions. The CPI-TRS meeting felt that the BJP was selling PSUs and damaging the basic fabric of the Constitution.

“Our aim should be ‘BJP Mukt Bharat’. All democratic, secular and Left forces have to unite and fight to end the wicked rule of BJP. We have to root out the BJP. For this, we have to meet again and again to chalk out the future course of action. All like-minded parties should be invited to the next meeting,” the CPI leaders said.

The development taking place in Telangana also figured in the discussions. The Left leaders said that instead of encouraging a performing Telangana, the Narendra Modi government was creating obstacles to its development. “This is against the spirit of federalism,” they said.

The Left leaders opined that the Modi government was acting against SC, ST, BCs and farmers. “The divisive politics of the BJP are a blot on democracy,” the Left leaders said. The politics being pursued by BJP are posing a threat to the unity and integrity of the country, they said.

The controversy over the security lapse during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent tour of Punjab also figured in the discussions.

“As farmers were against Modi, the crowd at the public meeting, supposed to be addressed by Modi, was thin. Then, Modi enacted “security breach drama” as face-saver and returned to Delhi,” the Left leaders said. The CPM and the CPI leaders also discussed the forthcoming Assembly elections in five States.

The Left and TRS leaders opined that a BJP BJP was certain and that the SP led by Akhilesh Yadav would storm to power in Uttar Pradesh. It may be mentioned here that the TRS has been strongly opposing the policies of the BJP in the last few months. Against this backdrop, the TRS chief invited the left leaders for lunch at his official residence.