KCR cannot take voters for granted

The Chief Minister of Telangana, K Chandrashekar Rao, a staunch believer in Vaasthu Shastra and horoscope, is all set to dissolve the Assembly on Friday, September 6. The real poll bugle will be blown from Husnabad the very next day. KCR chose this place to kick-start his first of the 100 election rallies in 50 days for two reasons. First, since East is the direction supposedly belonging to Lord Indra, the king of gods. Sun rises in the east. It is considered most auspicious and holiest of all directions. Secondly, because Karimnagar breathed life into separate Telangana Movement.

The Chief Minister has played his cards fast and in a systematic manner. He met the Governor several times to discuss legal and constitutional matters. He consulted legal experts both in the state and in Delhi. He sent his trusted lieutenant Rajiv Sharma to New Delhi to discuss the issue with Election Commission and get clarification on the possibility of TS going in for polls with four other states. He cleared files and bills, got campaign vehicles ready, worked out the number of election meetings he should address, and prepared a draft list of candidates, which he would be announcing in a phased manner, perhaps, a few of them at each meeting.

The first list that would be announced at Husnabad would include the names of KCR, Finance Minister Eatala Rajender, Harish Rao, Solipeta Ramalinga Reddy and Voditela Satish and, may be, a couple of other names. KCR has taken up 17 surveys and told party leaders that he may have to change about six sitting members out of present 90.

While it is an undisputed fact that there is a strong undercurrent of anger against the present government among the common men, none of the opposition parties has been able to galvanise the people so far to cash in on the anti-incumbency factor. They have not been able to give even an indication that all of them are capable of burying their hatchet and coming on one platform to take on TRS just as the TJAC had done to fight the Congress during the struggle for separate state.

Though Amit Shah says that he will take charge of TBJP poll campaign and that they would contest all 119 seats, the voter knows that BJP cannot cross its present strength of 4 in Hyderabad and one in Ranga Reddy district. But then a word of caution for TRS. He may take his leaders for granted and even the opposition, but should not take people for granted.

NTR, too, was very confident in 1989, especially considering the dizzy heights he sat on as the nation was poised on the threshold of general elections. As the chairman of National Front, he had hoped to play the king-maker in Delhi after the elections, but what the country saw was a shattered Rama Rao. He took the voters for granted even as Dr M Chenna Reddy activated district units of the Congress party and came up with separate local manifestos to counter TDP. Reddy specified the welfare schemes he would continue and the ones he would scrap after coming to power. He made the disgruntled party leaders close ranks and this made the party win the elections. The big question is: Can Congress repeat this now?