The Telangana Rashtra Samiti has downplayed reports that its president and Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s meeting with DMK president M.K. Stalin in Chennai on Monday ended on a sour note for the former.
Reacting to reports that Mr. Stalin was firm on DMK continuing its ties with the Congress after the declaration of Parliament poll results, the party MP, B. Vinod Kumar, who accompanied Mr. Rao, denied discussing politics at the meeting. “It was decided to discuss politics only after the results were out,” he told The Hindu . Mr. Vinod Kumar categorical said that the meeting confined itself to discussing the Centre-State relations and how the regional parties can play their cards effectively ahead of the government formation. Mr. Rao shared with Mr. Stalin how this was the right time for the voices of the regional parties to be heard at the national level.
Some of the demands that the regional parties can put before the conglomerate of parties that would come to power include giving larger role for States in the implementation of the subjects included in the concurrent list. The States should also have a say in the devolution of funds by the Centre, he said.
