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The Andhra Pradesh political brinkmanship of the Congress tipped not only itself, but even its extension counters or worst enemies – the Telugu Desam and the YSR Congress, over the precipice when it comes to the Telangana issue. The Telugu Desam, which still has its own dedicated vote share in Telangana region, has been caught in a bind on the petulant issue of Telangana. Just by scratching the surface, some Congressmen are only willing to conclude that their party’s offshoot, the YSR Congress, hasn’t taken roots in the region.
But the truth erupts like lava only when general elections to the Houses of People are conducted at the State and also in the Centre, for the denouement of byelections is not a barometer for the poll prospects of political parties.
The Congress’ innuendos on the possibility of carving a new state or retaining as it has been since 1956 or making it half by annexing two Rayalaseema districts each to Telangana and Andhra do not augur well for the ruling party which is craving for a third term at the Centre as well as in the State.
Senior Congress leaders are making an open offer to the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) which is chiefly responsible for the creation and sustenance of the separate State agitation as also the TRS. Former APCC president D Srinivas, an aspirant for the post of Chief Minister’s post in the event of the formation of a separate State, exuded confidence that the TRS supremo K Chandrasekhar Rao would not go back on his oft-repeated vow that he would merge his entity with the Congress, if the latter created a separate Telangana.
The political takeover code may not come in the way of such a merger. But, KCR, an astute politician who could sustain his political entity for more than a decade without being in power (resignations have been his cumulative investments), is surely not ready for an acquisition of his party by the Grand Old Party. The mood in the TRS is somewhat sullen, for the Congressmen are trying to hog the limelight, of late, and steal the thunder from the KCR-led TRS in the formation of a separate Telangana.
For, invariably the Congress, as is its wont, would acquire more than 51 per cent of political stake and KCR may not be left with the status of even an ‘executive director’ in the new entity, for, at the end of the day, the puny TRS’s merger with the behemoth – the Congress – would just turn out to be another business of politics.
When leaders like Palwai Goverdhan Reddy and V Hanumantha Rao (both members of Rajya Sabha) have been goading KCR to merge, senior leaders in the TRS, most of them had their political moorings anchored in the TDP, including KCR, are averse to the move.
But the Congress leaders are exuding confidence that they can get KCR around either by hook or by crook. But another serious apprehension lurking in the heart of hearts of some senior leaders like T Jeevan Reddy, a former minister from Karimnagar district, who have their body in the Congress and soul in the YSRC, cannot be discounted just as a figment of fertile imagination.
If the TRS merges with the Congress in the event of the formation of a separate Telangana or at least an announcement to that effect, the rank and file of the two parties who have been nursing electoral ambitions will have to strike a deal. But the broader understanding will not boil down to the grassroots. In such an event, those who will be left disappointed would seek a refuge in the YSRC.
If the Congress allots a Lok Sabha or an Assembly ticket to its own candidate, sidelining a TRS aspirant, who has been nursing the particular constituency, the latter would obviously look at crossing the fence into the YSR Congress. The same is true in a converse situation too – a disgruntled Congress aspirant may choose to strike a deal with YSRC or join the party too.
The YSRC continues to remain fledgling in the region for want of leaders and cadre. Strangely, the party appears to have given up on the region, at the moment. It is for this precise reason that it has been chanting the mantra of Article 3 of the Constitution and that the Centre should act like a father-figure in respect of carving out separate Telangana and that the party would endorse any decision taken by Delhi. This only buttresses Chandrababu Naidu’s ‘baby Congress’ teaser.
But a big question that confronts everyone is that why does YSRC become the choice of the ‘migratory birds’ from the Congress and the TRS and why not the TDP? For, this new political formation is an offshoot of the Congress with too many leaders having their political roots in the grand old party and the TDP doesn’t have that kind of a synergistic equation with Telangana protagonists, despite the fact that most TRS leaders took their political birth in the TDP.
Well, the TDP, in spite of its best efforts, has been unable to put out an actionable way forward vis-à-vis the Telangana formation, thanks to the contradictions within. The haunt of its Seemandhra image is dogging it in Telangana region, while the spectre of the late YSR is posing a greater challenge to it than the Congress in Seemandhra Telangana.
Will Chandrababu Naidu be in a position handle this make-or-break moment of the TDP remains a million-dollar question.
Emboldened by the confusion within the major contenders, the BJP, which is raring to go, wants to make inroads into Telangana region through a massive rally of Narendra Modi in Hyderabad slated for August 11.
