KCR eyes snap-poll masterstroke

Is Telangana State heading for an early poll? The buzz is on all over and there is a growing debate on such a possibility. This becomes crystal clear if one goes by the animated discussions that are underway during the ongoing Assembly session. Though the Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has ruled out the possibility of midterm polls, a snap-poll is, nonetheless, being discussed behind closed doors.

The way political parties are preparing for the electoral battle reminds me of a N Balakrishna dialogue from his film Gautami Putra Satakarni, “Samayamu Ledu Mitrama,” (Not much time is left, my dear friend). The master-strategist that he is, KCR seems to have pulled a fast one that is leaving the opposition gasping for breath, particularly in the context of working out electoral strategies.

The only other party close to the TRS in chalking out an action plan is the BJP, which is reportedly keen to go in for an early poll. The Congress party, which got a severe beating in the recent elections to five States, is yet to recover from the shock.

As things stand, the Telangana unit of TDP can, at best, hope to improve its tally by a couple more eats. The party is, in fact, struggling to find alternate leadership at the district and mandal levels. The State unit leaders admit that KCR had worked the district topography in such a way that it would give him advantage in at least 40 constituencies.

Concerned over the turn of events, it has now submitted a memorandum to the Election Commission saying that the delimitation should be done not on the basis of new districts but keeping in view the ten districts that existed at the time of the creation of the State.

They also met Left party leaders like Sitaram Yechury and impressed upon him the need to take up the issue in Parliament during discussion on delimitation. The Congress party, already groping in the dark, fears that there could be some more desertions in the not too distant future. Against this backdrop, it is now clear that the fight in the next elections, whenever they are held, will be between the pink party and the saffron brigade.

Interestingly, KCR also acknowledged this at the meeting of the party MPs, MLAs and MLCs held in Hyderabad on Saturday. The BJP which had two months back announced that it would focus its attention on South has started executing its action plan.

The state unit has already identified people who can fan out deep into the rural areas and explain to the people about the achievements of the NDA government and also expose the failure of the TRS-led government. The party national president Amit Shah who gave a draft action plan would now be visiting Telangana in April and will be directly monitoring the campaign.

From the manner in which the BJP has been opposing the proposed 12 percent reservations to Muslims alleging that it was being done on the basis of religion, gives a clear indication that the saffron brigade wants to project itself as party that is opposed to the policy of appeasement.

There is also a talk that a Yogi Adityanath kind of leader could emerge before the elections. One has to wait and watch who the T Yogi for BJP would be in Telangana State.

By V RAMU SARMA