The Congress in Maharashtra on Sunday said it welcomed the efforts of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao to forge an anti-BJP front but cautioned that such an initiative by regional parties cannot be successful without the Congress party which is the "only alternative" to the ruling BJP.

Rao, the president of Telangana Rashtra Samitihi (TRS), on Sunday separately met his Maharashtra counterpart and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar, who heads the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), in Mumbai. He held discussions on various issues facing the country with Thackeray and Pawar and called for a (political) change.