Road to 2024: KCR embarks on 286 plan
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, September 1: Imploding Congress may throw itself out of the contention of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in the next few months, barring a miraculous turnaround.
The Bharatiya Janata Party a few months ago set in motions its poll preparations for the Lok Sabha elections with clear strategy to close the gaps in constituencies where the saffron outfit had been lagging behind.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar timed his exit from the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) at the most opportune time when the Opposition space looks facing leadership drought against Narendra Modi of the BJP.
Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao is among the few maverick politicians around in the country. He has over the years shown a knack to beat the national parties, while devouring the Congress in Telangana with his well-disguised tricks. He had floored Sonia Gandhi with the assurance to merge his party with the Congress if the UPA ensured the creation of Telangana.
In July, KCR again outfoxed the BJP in denying the visibility in Telangana when the saffron outfit held its national executive meeting in Hyderabad.
The public hoardings, newspapers spaces and all other options where the BJP could have launched the publicity blitzkrieg had already been booked by the Telangana Rashtra Samithi and the KCR-led state government.
In May, KCR launched himself onto his national ambitions, as he set out to meet the Chief Ministers of the Opposition-ruled states, with the exception of the Congress-held states.
So, he had already met the likes of Bhagwant mann, Arvind Kejriwal, Uddhav Thackeray, MK Stalin and others in May. During the time, TRS had sought to build a campaign against the BJP-led Central government on the issue of the alleged non-procurement of paddy in Telangana. That issue failed to find national resonance.
On Wednesday, KCR was back in Patna on the pretext of distributing Rs 10 lakh cheques each to the Galwan martyrs from Bihar. KCR, interestingly, is reaching out to help dependents of the deceased army personnel of Bihar. This should be part of his strategy to build a national profile.
In Patna, KCR and Nitish Kumar displayed warm appreciation for each other. Playing the side role but important was the Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar Tejashwi Yadav who accompanied KCR to the visit of the Patna Sahib, an important pilgrimage centre for Sikhs.
KCR has a turf of 286 Lok Sabha seats to play for in the Lok sabha elections.
The states currently ruled by the regional parties along with Maharashtra where there are two such political outfits account for 286 Parliamentary constituencies.
The Congress is largely a fringe player in such states which are being eyed upon by KCR for stitching a grand alternative to Modi-led BJP.
“In the KCR scheme of plan, a 60 per cent strike rate by the regional parties may fetch them a collective haul of about 175 Lok Sabha seats. That will tie the hand of the Congress to extend an outside support in the event the BJP is held back with less than 250 Parliamentary seats,” sources in the TRS said.
Bihar (40), West Bengal (42), Tamil Nadu (39), Kerala (21), Andhra Pradesh (25), Telangana (17), Jharkhand (14), Punjab (13), Delhi (7) and Odisha (20) are currently ruled by the regional parties, which along with Maharashtra where the Nationalist Congress Party and the Shiv Sena have strong presence account for 286 Lok Sabha seats.
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