The BJP today said Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s efforts to forge a ‘non-Congress, non-BJP’ front is a “knee-jerk” reaction to poll results in the three north-eastern states, and will not pose a political challenge to the party or the NDA.

BJP spokesperson GVL Narasimha Rao said his party getting a “massive mandate” in Tripura and forming the government there and in Meghalaya and Nagaland, has created a panic in many political parties about the BJP’s continued growth.

“The BJP has expanded from five states in power in 2014 to 21 states now, this continued journey is likely to gobble up or is likely to threaten their (many other parties’) own existence. So, it’s more like a panic-stricken party’s call for survival rather than posing a political challenge to the BJP or the NDA,” he told PTI. “It’s a knee-jerk reaction to the shocking defeat that the Congress has faced and the spectacular victory that the BJP has achieved (in the three NE states),” he claimed.

“Qualitative change”

Efforts to stich a non-Congress, non-BJP front appeared to be gaining momentum with the Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee reaching out to the DMK, and Chandrasekhar Rao continuing to receive support for such a proposal.

Former Chhattisgarh chief minister Ajit Jogi yesterday spoke to Chandrasekhar Rao over phone and expressed support for the plan to float a Third Front-like formation, the Telangana chief minister’s office said.

Chandrasekhar Rao, the leader of Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), had said he was keen to engage himself in national politics to bring about a “qualitative change” and was in talks with others to form a platform of like-minded parties.

Several leaders, including Mamata Banerjee, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi and former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), have extended support to Rao’s proposal, according to the TRS.

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