There are two more phases of polling in the Lok Sabha election and results are not due until May 23. But Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao, who heads the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, has sought meetings with his counterparts in other southern States as well as with Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam president M.K. Stalin in what is a clear attempt to prepare the ground for a ‘federal front’ of non-Congress, non-BJP parties after the elections. Mr. Rao had attempted to bring together such a formation earlier as well. Last year, a pre-election federal front did not quite take off due to the varying positioning of the regional parties. Some such as the DMK, the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Janata Dal (S) favoured a direct alliance with the Congress and were not part of the TRS’s plans. While others such as the Trinamool Congress did not fully rule out a post-poll alliance with the Congress, the Biju Janata Dal has not ruled out any such alliance with either the BJP or the Congress. For the TRS, the idea of a federal front is rooted in the political contest in its own State. The Congress is the primary rival in Telangana for the TRS, and so its antipathy to a Congress-led coalition. In fact, the TRS had late last year abstained in the trust vote called by the Opposition in Parliament, signalling equidistance with the BJP and the Congress.

However, by now seeking to meet Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan of the CPI(M), Karnataka Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy of the JD(S) and Mr. Stalin, Mr. Rao seems to be indicating a reorientation of sorts. Some of these parties are the Congress’s coalition partners — the JD(S) in Karnataka and the DMK in Tamil Nadu — and the Left has an unequivocal position against the BJP. Mr. Rao’s outreach has raised speculation that his party would be willing to be part of a regional front that is clearly more antithetical to the BJP and that could be supported by the Congress if the need arises. It may not be so simple, as there are other forces that the TRS is politically opposed to, such as the Telugu Desam Party, which are likely to be part of a post-poll anti-BJP coalition. The idea of a third front in which the Congress and the BJP do not play a part has always been attractive to the regional parties, and the Left in particular. But despite the continued relevance of regional parties, the resilience of the two main national parties has prevented this from happening. The fact that the TRS could not work out a pre-poll, pan-India coalition to delineate itself from the Congress and the BJP is in itself a signal of this. In the larger scheme of things, all this manoeuvring by the TRS chief might yield little more than some additional leverage for his party in a post-poll situation.