New Delhi: Telangana Chief Minister and Telangana Rashtra Samithi chief, Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao popularly known as ‘KCR’ will visit Bihar today to meet his counterpart Nitish Kumar which is being seen as an attempt by the former to consolidate a united front against the Bharatiya Janata Party for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
KCR is scheduled to reach Bihar at around 11am today and will give away cheques of ex-gratia to family members of a dozen labourers who were burnt alive in their sleep at Hyderabad where they lived in a cramped upper storey of a congested building.
He will also be paying cheques of compensation to family members of soldiers who were killed in the stand-off with Chinese troops in Galwan Valley of Ladakh region.
Earlier in March, Rao and Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren jad handed over a cheque of Rs 10 lakh each to the families of the two jawans who were martyred in Galwan valley. Rao had announced to provide assistance to the families of 19 soldiers who were martyred on the Indo-China border in 2020.
ALSO READ: Preparations Underway To Install Lord Ganesh Idol At Hubbali Idgah Ground After Karnataka HC Orders
Thereafter the southern politician will have a luncheon with Kumar, whose stock in the anti-BJP camp has sky-rocketed since his path-breaking exit from the NDA earlier this month.
The TRS chief is also expected to meet former Bihar Chief Minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav at 10 Circular Road.
"It will be a unity between the south and the north to defeat the BJP," said Neeraj Kumar, an MLC and chief spokesperson of JD(U), the party to which the Bihar chief minister belongs.
"KCR is undoubtedly a prominent leader of the south and a key voice against the BJP. In Nitish Kumar, the opposition is seeing new hope. The meeting between the two leaders is bound to have national repercussions," he said, quoted by news agency PTI.
Meanwhile, the BJP which lost its grip in Bihar and is trying to make itself count in Telangana politics reacted sharply to the meeting.
"The meeting between KCR and Nitish Kumar will be a new comedy show staged in the name of opposition unity," said senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi in a statement.