Third Front Building Up? Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal to Meet Andhra CM Chandrababu Naidu in Delhi

New Delhi, April 4: Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal will meet his Andhra Pradesh counterpart N Chandrababu Naidu in the capital today. According to news agency ANI, Arvind Kejriwal will meet the Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu in Andhra Bhawan in Delhi later in the day. With this meeting scheduled, political analysts are speculating if this is the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief's attempt to try and become a part of the (imagined) third front. Kejriwal on Tuesday had issued apology to BJP leader and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for accusing him of corruption charges. Reports said that Arun Jaitley has also accepted the apology and will drop the civil defamation case that was filed by him against the AAP chief.

The meeting comes days after Chandrababu Naidu's Telegu Desam Party pulled out its ministers from Prime Minister Modi's cabinet and quit the NDA over Andhra Pradesh not being given the special category status. Naidu is on a two-day visit to the capital and arrived in Delhi on Monday night. He also met leaders from different parties to generate support over getting Special Category Status (SCS) for Andhra Pradesh.

The list of party members that Naidu met in the Parliament's central hall are- Sharad Pawar (NCP), Farooq Abdullah (J-K NC), Saugata Roy (TMC), Supriya Sule (NCP), Jyotiraditya Scindia (Congress), Jitender Reddy (TRS), M Veerappa Moily (Congress) and Rajiv Satav (Congress). He also met Anupriya Patel (Apna Dal), Harsimrat Kaur Badal (Shiromani Akali Dal) and Tariq Anwar (NCP).

After the Samajwadi Party candidates, with the help from Mayawati's BSP beat the Bhartiya Janata Party nominees in the recently concluded Uttar Pradesh by-poll elections in Gorakhpur and Phulpur constituency seats, there has been a leash of fresh hope for leaders of regional parties to form a third front. West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has also been trying to become the face of third front and has been meeting other leaders of the opposition parties. Sonia Gandhi, chairperson of the UPA had also called for a dinner which was attended by leaders of 20 parties followed by Sharad Pawar's meeting with Mamata Banerjee in Delhi a few days later. Speculations are rife if Kejriwal will support Chandrababu Naidu's demand for Special Category Status for the state of Andhra Pradesh but the bigger question is that will Kejriwal also attempt to bring together the third front after his apology spree to Bikram Singh Majithia, Kapil Sibbal and now Arun Jaitley.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 04, 2018 09:14 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).