Is Telangana voting for development or sentiment?

As the elections are few says away, it is interesting to analyse the desire of the people. The people believe that they have been under the clutches of the people of Seemandhra for nearly 6 decades and expect a smooth transition and development of the new state. They desperately want to express their gratitude to all parties involved in the formation of the state, but are still confused on who they should support. People know that TRS has been with the movement for several years, the Congress has seen that the bill is passed and the BJP has always been supportive of the cause and supported for successful passing of the bill. They also know that TDP particularly its leaders from Telengana also contributed for separate statehood. At the end of it people believe that all parties did it for political compulsions and hence the choice is between the better devils. Whether the voters show pragmatism and plump for the Congress for giving them a separate State or they be driven by sentiment and back TRS, a party that led the struggle is not clear. There is also an issue of development claimed by TDP-BJP alliance and sentiment. This is quite a dilemma for the people and there are several arguments on which party they should be voting for. The Congress is deeply worried over its failure to extract mileage from its crowning achievement of creating Telangana. The TRS, which claimed sole proprietary rights over the T-sentiment, has largely succeeded in turning the tide in its favour mainly in North Telangana.

Basically what we have understood from the people is that while expressing their gratitude they would want the party at the state to have a tie up with the party which would possibly form the government at the centre. This helps the cause and developmental issues would be taken up and things would go smoothly he says. The TRS is aware of this and like always has maintained that it is open to any tie up but at the moment it would want to go alone. For now KCR is keeping his cards close to his heart and is hitting out at both the Congress and the TDP-BJP alliance in equal measure. He has not been very critical of the BJP which possibly indicates that he is open for a post poll tie up with them. He appears to hit out at the Congress because they are presently his main opponents. He cannot say anything good about the TDP-BJP since it is projecting both of them as villains. This stand helps them to muster some votes from Muslim minority as well.

All the political parties found it extremely difficult to manage ticket distribution to the aspirants. Many existing leaders have changed their loyalties overnight. As the alliances and candidates are finalized and campaign is in full swing the election related discourse in party offices and street corners has turned on who would form the government. Both the Congress and the TRS appear to be confident of a winning majority seats in Assembly and desperate to be in power in the state.

However, KCR has nothing to offer to the people and does not spell out clearly his plans for the development of the new state. TRS still plays Telangana sentiment and provokes people by speaking on reclaiming lands illegally obtained by Seema-Andhra leaders. Further, it goads that if Congress comes to power, the new Congress Chief Minister would only listen to the Congress high command, there by jeopardizing the interests of Telangana especially regarding issues like sharing of water, employment, education, etc. He speaks about allotting 3 acres to each landless family in the state when there is no such surplus land is available. He tals about irrigating one lakh acres of land in every constituency but makes no mention as to where the funds would come in from. There is talk of big capital and corporate interests and many in the remote parts of Telangana fear that he may just hand over control of the state to the corporate sector, just like earlier governments did. The TRS also assured that 50 lakh new jobs would be created apart from setting up 10 thermal stations. Hyderabad would be made into a major hardware hub is also what they say. It is necessary to focus on Hyderabad since it is the fund generator which would be the economic engine of the new state, the TRS also claim.

The Congress claim on development in the last decade has not impressed people and the party is not speaking much about the future of the state. They too are going about speaking about how they granted the state and how Sonia Gandhi was responsible for this. There is one advantage for the party that Telangana is the only region in the country where there is no anti Congress wave. The BJP too has not come out clear on this aspect and only claims that it supported the bill in the Parliament and just counting on Modi wave and his popularity. The TDP-BJP alliance is not working hard to transfer the votes for mutual benefit to achieve the alliance goal.

As the election process set into motion and with the poll date nearing, with both the TRS and the Congress appears to be equally strong has only ensured that no party will get absolute majority. While the battle is clearly between the Congress and the TRS, BJP- TDP will stall either of them getting a majority thus resulting in a hung house. This brings us to another question and that is who would form the government in Telangana in case of a hung house. TRS claims that it would form the government on its own but in the unlikely event it would tie up with any party to hold on to power. First TRS may be prefer to tie up with TDP-BJP alliance if the latter gets enough seats to support for forming government. This would give an opportunity to play a major role to play at centre and even in some berths in the cabinet. Further it may also take support from Congress and get satisfied with controlling power in the state. It is surely a confusing situation for the voter but this appears to be possible scenario after elections. The last thing the people want is a hung house particularly at a time when they should rejoice the formation of the state and focus on fulfilling aspirations of millions of people in the new state.