Baptism by fire for legacy inheritors

Although it sounds surprising, most political parties in Telangana State are attempting to foresee a possible scenario a month ahead of the next general election. As some sort a contingency plan, most parties have already embarked upon interesting exercises in order to be battle-ready and brave any possible situational challenges.

Not to be left behind in pre-poll dress-rehearsals, the once bitten twice shy Congress central leadership seems to have resolved to go to the people with a young brigade in order to regain lost ground.

Though, the current situation does not send any positive signals of it wresting the seat of power, the party leadership, nonetheless, is going all out to improve its tally to more respectable levels.

Intending to launch the refurbishing act from the very top, there are clear indications that in a month’s time, the heir-apparent Rahul Gandhi was likely to succeed Sonia Gandhi as the party president.

For a change Rahul baba has also said that he was now ready to become the Prime Minister if he is asked to do so. Ironically, he made his intentions clear during an interaction with students during his recent visit to the United States.

If the preparations in all the political parties are any indication, it appears that the so-called young brigade will comprise of scions of senior leaders while some newcomers could jump onto the electoral fray.

It will be a paradox in itself as there will no more be accusations of promotion of dynastic politics! With the intention of out-smarting the opponents at their own game, the fathers are readying their children for the challenges even as party leaderships are on the job of assessing the winning prospects of those coming in the Gen Next bracket, including in terms of popularity and money power.

In a way, this ‘catch ’em young’ fad has given birth to a new ‘poaching’ trend-wooing second and third generation budding politicians. That explains why children of TRS, Congress and TDP leaders are most sought after. A beginning was made on Sunday with D Arvind, son of TRS senior leader D Srinivas joining the BJP in the presence of Rajnath Singh at the public meeting in Nizamabad.

Bolstered by the ‘prized-catch’ the saffron party is firming up for encores. TRS boss K Chandrasekhar Rao, who is no less a master strategist, has been getting surveys done almost every month to assess the impact of various government schemes on the people, the popularity of the party and the people’s perception of the local leaders, including those at the grass-root.

Party insiders say that the TRS is in close contact with children of Opposition leaders like K Jana Reddy, KR Suresh Reddy, Damodar Reddy, Sabita Indra Reddy as also the daughter in law of Ponnala Laxmaiah. In fact, this scramble to gobble up children has heralded a competition between the BJP and TRS.

The Congress party is trying to win over children of TDP’s Uma Madhav Reddy, and the daughter of Motkupalli Narsimhulu, whose dreams of becoming a Governor have been watered down. There is a distinct possibility that he will explore new arenas. The talk doing the rounds is that Congress and BJP are trying to woo Abhishek Patil, son of Zaheerabad MP BB Patil from TRS.

By default, the 2019 election is heading to be a khichdi where in children of those calling the shots today will add spice to tomorrow’s dish-assortment.

By V RAMU SARMA