Will KCR’s political gamble pay off?

Though Congress has a strength of 17 members and is sure of getting one more vote to win an MLC seat, KCR’s bold move to field the fifth candidate opens the field to intense horse trading. His motive appears to decimate the TDP, by encouraging cross-voting and also by rallying non-BJP and non-TDP forces. He has already reduced TDP strength from 15 to 11 and the latter is hard-pressed to get 7 more votes to get its candidate through

Hyderabad: Will Telangana Chief Minister and TRS Supremo K Chandrashekar Rao’s gamble in deciding to field a fifth party nominee for the current MLC elections under the MLA quota pay off?

It is a fact that the ruling TRS can comfortably win only four of the six seats for which polling is scheduled to take place on June 1. Since each candidate for a win would require a minimum of 18 votes, TRS with a tally of 75 members in the Telangana Assembly can ensure a comfortable victory for four of its nominees without any hitch.

However, for the fifth nominee to sail through, the party falls short of as many as 15 members. Thus the gamble of the Chief Minister to field a fifth candidate has intrigued many in political circles. But KCR seemed to be confident that with the backing of MIM, which has a strength of seven members in the Assembly, and also support from each member of CPI, CPM, YSRCP and an Independent, besides the expected “cross voting” might help TRS to pocket the fifth seat too.

It is not known what prompted KCR to throw his hat in the ring despite being fully aware that if the move backfired, the ruling party’s image might get a beating for the worst as the party had already suffered a setback in the recent MLC elections from the graduates constituency with the BJP supported candidate wresting the seat, Clearly the move is part of KCR’s one-upmanship game to score a point against his bête noire. It is a well0known fact that Rao and his AP counterpart Chandrababu Naidu, who is also the TDP president, are bitter political enemies even before the southern Telugu State was divided into Telangana and AP States. Both do not see eye to eye on many issues and try to cross swords with other at every given opportunity.

From day one after taking the reins as Chief Minister of Telangana, KCR has vowed to wipe out TDP from the Telangana map. Accordingly he has been maneuvering and encouraging TDP members to defect to TRS. Four TDP members joined TRS reducing the yellow brigade’s strength from 15 to 11. What is more, KCR has diligently used his “akarshan” to attract four members from Congress and two members each from BSP and YSR Congress Party, thus increasing the strength of TRS from 63 to 75.

Thus the MLC elections slated for June 1 seemed to have provided yet another opportunity to Rao to push Naidu to the wall. The TDP which has an effective strength of 11 members is being supported by the BJP’s 5 members. For the remaining two votes, the party leadership is in touch with the Left parties for support.

The Congress with an effective strength of 17 members, is sure of winning a seat and is trying to rope in members from non-TRS and non-BJP parties. The Congress leadership also assigned its senior member and Leader of Opposition K Jana Reddy to persuade the TRS to desist from fielding a fifth candidate and cooperate in making the election for the sixth seat unanimous. But KCR having his own agenda up his sleeve turned down the Congress plea.

Whether TRS chief succeeds or not in the one-upmanship game with the TDP president, the very fact that he had thrown his hat into the ring has definitely ushered in “ache din“ for fence-sitters of both the Congress and the TDP in helping them get rich quick. Already the horse trading has begun with all the three contesting parties trying to “buy” as many votes as possible.

All said and done the MLC election has become crucial for all the three contesting parties and has definitely attracted nation-wide attention. If KCR succeeds in his gamble by winning the fifth seat, then it would sound the death-knell for both the TDP and the Congress. In fact, there are more chances of the TDP getting decimated under the prevailing circumstances. (Agencies)