Nagender’s exit is wake-up call for PCC

In war or in an election, no one will play by the rules. There is no point in the Congress leaders playing the victim after an important leader in Hyderabad Danam Nagender left the party in search of a new habitat. The grand old party should realise that his exit is a disconcerting symptom of a deeper malaise that is afflicting it internally.

At least now, it should close the stables before other horses too bolt, if it nurtures hopes of winning the next elections. Though Nagender is a hardcore Congress leader and is not known to survive in a different ambience, yet he took the leap of faith, hoping KCR would provide him the kind of ecosystem in which he could flourish.

That Danam feels like a fish out of water when not in Congress was proved when he left his home and embraced TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu just before 2004 Assembly elections. He even won Asifabad on TDP ticket but could not stay for long in the party. He quit Naidu’s company and his membership of the Assembly and went back to the Congress.

One reason he gave then was that he was feeling increasingly suffocated in the TDP and that he could not sit in Opposition benches and shout at the leaders of the party he came from. The other reason that weighed heavily on his mind was that at a time when the Congress came to power, he found himself in the opposition benches.

He came out and contested from Asifnagar on Congress ticket in the by-election later in the year but lost it to AIIMIM. The prodigal child stayed with the Congress since then until a couple of days ago when he resigned from the party in search of greener pastures knowing fully well that he is a Congressman to the core.

Coming back to the point, how could the Congress blame KCR for spiriting away Danam? If KCR could convert an out and out Congressman into a pink panther, the fault lay more in the Congress leadership. KCR, an expert in playing his cards well, waited for the opportune moment to strike. When the Reddy- dominated Congress began isolating, Nagender who is a BC leader, KCR knew that the iron was slowly heating up.

When the Congress honchos posted someone else as City Congress president, Nagender could not stomach it anymore since he thought no one fits the bill better than him and is always under the opinion that he alone could keep the party together and make it battle-ready when elections finally arrive.

Watching the iron become red hot, KCR went for the kill and Danam is now in another party, leaving the Congress bruised and its morale, shaken. The Congress leaders are using expletives in attacking KCR for engineering defections but that is how the game of politics is played. The normal ethos that set rules for society would not apply to politics.

There is a different set of rules and there is no point in ruing over the opponent getting an upper hand. In fact, by crying foul, one is admitting that the individual has lost the plot. The cry-baby attitude might help the Congress in getting sympathy from the people, howsoever miniscule, but when you take a plunge headlong into the electoral war, there are several other powerful factors that come into play while deciding the eventual outcome.

Nagener being a BC would be an asset for TRS. KCR is keeping the bait ready, waiting for other big fish to take the bite. He is reportedly eying M Mukesh Goud and Damodar Rajanarasimha and former HUDA chairman D Suddheer Reddy. Following Danam’s exit, it is only a matter of time before the Domino effect will begin taking a toll of the State Congress.

A leader like KCR waits for the opportune time. The Congress should have known this earlier. For several months, Danam has been feeling isolated since he was not given any importance in the party. Unlike other leaders, Danam is a leader of flourish and panache, though his sphere of influence is limited. He wants to leave a mark wherever he goes or whatever he does. This trait of him makes him invaluable to any party.

That is the reason why KCR has waited patiently for Danam to get sick of Congress and then sent his minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav to build a bridge of understanding with him and escort him into the TRS, which Yadav accomplished with flair. Though it is not certain if Rajanarasimha and Sudheer Reddy would shift loyalties, the very rumours are enough to sound the electoral death-knell for Congress.

Already the party central leadership, where Ashok Gehlot is calling the shots, is reportedly unhappy over the growing Reddy dominance in the party and how they are making others particularly the BCs feel suffocated. The party needs a judicious mix of all castes but what has resulted is a Witches’ brew in which castes are in permanent conflict with one another rather than being in a state of harmonious coalescence.