Telangana poll plot thickens; Congress employs reverse engineering
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, June 26: Telangana was carved out of Andhra Pradesh after K. Chandrashekhar Rao had woven a magical spell on the Congress, and Manmohan Singh headed United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government forced the passage of the AP Reorganisation Bill amid ugly scenes in the Lok Sabha. Ten years later, the Congress is seeking to turn the table on Rao by employing his own trick of shoring strength with the help of defections.
Five former MLAs and on ex-MP on Monday joined the Congress in the presence of the former party chief Rahul Gandhi. In the last 10 years, a large pool of the leaders of the Congress had switched ranks to join the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), which was renamed Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) to fulfil the national ambitions of Rao.
Telangana CM had incidentally taken the script of his Odisha counterpart Naveen Patnaik to consolidate hold over the state by inducting the Congress leaders in the ranks. But Rao now is running into anti-incumbency factor of two terms, while the Enforcement Directorate (ED) probes his daughter K. Kavitha in an alleged liquor scam.
“Telangana is heading for a bipolar contest between the Congress and the BRS. The joining of ex-MP Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy is a certain shot in the arm for the party. More importantly, the founders of the BRS have joined the Congress, who hold significant influence in their respective constituencies,” said Nadeem Javed, the Congress national secretary and the party in-charge for Telangana.
Javed said that the joining of the leaders on Monday will boost the prospects of the Congress in the Khammam and Karimnagar regions. Both the regions account for 24 Assembly seats.
Incidentally, the Congress after winning the Karnataka Assembly election is seeking to replicate the success in Telangana as part of the party’s bid to gain strength in the state as well as the Lok Sabha.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is also hoping to make deep inroads in Telangana. Union Minister for Home Affairs Amit Shah has bene regularly visiting Telangana. The BJP, however, claims that the ruling BRS is helping the Congress to gain strength in the state to make the contest multi-cornered to split the anti-incumbency votes.
“Congress party’s MLAs, 1/3rd of them in in 2014 and 2/3rd in 2018 respectively, frog-jumped into TRS without hesitation. It is a shame that a supposedly 125 years old party is claiming its growth in Telangana now and attributing to non-existent bonhomie between the BJP and the & BRS,” said Arvind Dharmapuri, the BJP MP from the Nizamabad Lok Sabha constituency said.
Incidentally, the political circle is abuzz with the BRS getting soft with the BJP, as Rao found no place in the Opposition unity move led by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. The BJP claims that the BRS is as part of a strategy shifting party leaders to the Congress to get them back after the Assembly election in the state.
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