Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao makes it clear he’s on warpath with BJP | Hyderabad News
Until about a month ago, TRS largely had done a fine balancing act, supporting BJP nationally on key Bills in Parliament like demonetisation, abstaining during the passing of the Triple Talaq Bill, and backing BJP during the President’s election. KCR and his ministers would use acerbic comments against BJP in Telangana, but become portraits of restraint and discretion while dealing with the likes of Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah.
If KCR is now keeping Modi between his cross-hairs, it is because he expects the saffron party to target Telangana once assembly elections in the five states get over. Telangana is expected to hold assembly elections in December 2023, just ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Also, he wants to send out a message to all national opposition parties that he is no longer soft on BJP and would like to play a larger role in national politics.
His efforts to build bridges with nationally-relevant opposition leaders seemed to be working with his West Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee, who tweeted on Monday that she had spoken to Tamil Nadu chief minister M K Stalin and KCR about her ongoing battle with the governor in her state. Banerjee has taken the lead in calling a non-BJP chief minister’s conference in Delhi, where KCR, Tamil Nadu chief minister M K Stalin, Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray will be present. While Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren, Kerala’s Pinarayi Vijayan are among the likely participants, it is to be seen whether Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik joins the camp on the Centre’s allegedly anti-federal policies. Efforts are on to include as many non-BJP CMs as possible to be attending the meeting, the date for which will be finalised after the results of the five assembly poll are out on March 10.
What shape the anti-BJP front finally takes will be clear during the presidential and vice presidential elections that are coming up in July this year. But there is no mistaking TRS’s intent to change track and be firmly in the anti-BJP camp. The presidential and vice presidential elections will be the first political movement after these five state polls where the political formulations will be clear, said sources in TRS and other parties. “There are two major reasons for KCR’s turnaround. One, BJP is slowly making inroads in Telangana replacing Congress and becoming a major threat to the ruling TRS. Two, the TRS supremo’s ambition to play a key role at national level,” said political analyst K Nageshwar.
BJP, which had just 7% vote share in 2018 assembly elections, grew to 20 % in 2019 Lok Sabha polls. It then won two assembly by-elections – Dubbak in November 2020 and Huzurabad an year later. The result of the Hiuzurabad poll had especially hurt him because TRS lost to its own former leader Eatala Rajender. KCR had virtually foisted the bypoll on the state by throwing Eatala out of TRS over allegations of land-grabbing. But the two had stopped seeing eye-to-eye months earlier. Although the Huzurabad win was largely because of Elatala’s positive image among the voters, it still dented TRS’s invincibility on the seat.
TRS’s majority in the Greater Hyderbad Municipal Corporation was also reduced from 99 corporators to just 56 in the polls held in December 2020, with BJP suprising the ruling party as well as the other opposition parties and fortifying its credentials as Rao’s principal challenger. The civic body has 150 seats and has the capacity to influence results in at least 25 of the 119 assembly seats in the state.
That shut out the space for any ambiguity on the posture towards the saffron party. He decided to stay away when Prime Minister Narendra Modi came visiting for the unveiling of the statue of Vaishnavite saint Ramanuja, while state BJP president Bandi Sanjay Kumar was sent to jail for allegedly defying Covid protocol.
The Telangana CM has since been on the overdrive to push for a “federal front” with non-BJP and non-Congress parties by bringing all regional parties – such as TMC, DMK, Shiv Sena, JD(S), RJD and Samajwadi Party – on a single platform, is hoping that his efforts would gather momentum after these elections, analysts said. In the recent press conference in Hyderabad, KCR openly expressed his desire to play a role in national politics and, if required, float a national party to take on the saffron brigade.
“By slamming Assam CM for making comments against Congress MP Rahul Gandhi he wants to send a message to various regional parties that he is a trustworthy partner. He also indicated he would be ready to work with Congress in future, if required, to keep BJP out of power,” a senior TRS leader said.
Another TRS leader said KCR’s entry into national politics was “definite”, irrespective of the outcome of the state elections. “Demand for implementation of Dalit Bandhu scheme across country, remarks on new Constitution, enhanced SC and ST reservations, more powers to states and other issues raised by KCR will definitely attract many parties and start a debate,” TRS general secretary said.
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