Opportunity is beckoning at you. If grabbed, TDP has a chance to form new government in Telangana State. Aren’t you able to grasp the simple arithmetic? As the former Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu, Mr. N Ram, always suggests, it is arithmetic that matters the most in politics rather than chemistry. Now you have numbers glaringly visible for one and all to see. Now it’s for you to work out the chemistry with four political parties.
After all, it may not be an arduous task for an astute leader like you to cobble up the small numbers and not just pose a formidable threat to the Congress, but to form the pre-election government in Telangana. What’s more, you have the senior most legislator in Mr. Motkupalli Narasimhulu to be anointed the Chief Minister. He has seniority, knowledge, experience, acceptability and above all he hails from a dalit community.
It is only after the TDP pronounced its firm commitment to the separation of Telangana through a letter to the Pranab Mukherjee committee in 2008 that the Telangana Rashtra Samithi began trusting the Telugu Desam. The TRS founder K Chandrasekhar Rao had snapped his ties with the mighty YSR and came forth to join hands with the TDP for the 2009 general elections. Thus, the TRS can be construed a natural ally for your party. The TRS has 17 legislators in its kitty. That the TDP never won even a single by election after 2009 doesn’t come in the way of forging an alliance with the TRS in the current circumstances. As the oft-repeated saying, usually attributed to President Pranab Mukherjee, goes, “After all, there are no permanent friends, nor are there permanent foes in politics.”
Another natural ally who the TDP can convince is the All India Majlis-E-Ittehaadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) which has seven MLAs in the present Assembly, which will go the Telangana way. The MIM and the TDP had a political understanding in the erstwhile Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad (MCH). The TDP, with a view to protecting the interests of minorities, had snapped connections with the BJP. It is with a definite intent of maintaining a comfortable distance with the BJP that the TDP did not join the NDA Government. Therefore, it is all the more easy for t he TDP to vouch for its commitment to minorities. On the other hand, the TDP also gave a declaration for the minorities, reaffirming its position on creating an enhanced reservation for the Muslims.
These must be the reasons enough for the MIM to align with the TDP. With Narayana always hankering for an alliance with the TDP, the party can easily rope in the four legislators of the Communist Party of India (CPI) into its fold. The lone legislator of Lok Satha Jayaparakash Narayan may also be approached to throw his weight behind. Now that the formation of a separate Telangana is nearly confirmed, S Venugopalachary and K Harishwar Reddy, the TDP’s old guards who migrated to TRS, can also be requested to return home. Considering the political legerdemain that is a natural quality to Chandrababu Naidu, the TDP can focus on marginalizing the Congress by cobbling a non-Congress, non-BJP alliance and emerge as a force. The TDP anyway has 34 MLAs in Telangana.
The numbers add up this way: TDP – 34, TRS – 17, MIM – 7, CPI – 4, Lok Satha – 1. If the CPI-M also extends support, it will be 64 which is five members more than the half way mark in Telangana which will have 119 MLAs. The Congress has 49, the BJP – 4 and others 3. If the TDP can form the first government in Telangana, it can also nurse the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh with its inherent strengths. And, it will be advantageous for the party to fight the odds well in the next elections. There is absolutely nothing wrong in shedding a few ego issues and converging together with the TRS and the MIM for obvious reasons.
Owaisis are anyway cut up with the humiliation meted out to them in the form of arrests and KCR was your associate for decades and knows you like the back of his hand. After growing into the stature of a leader who could ignite and sustain an agitation for more than 12 years, KCR may also not like to play second fiddle to D Srinivas or K Jana Reddy or S Jaipal Reddy or Damodar Raja Narasimha. Above all, the TDP, the TRS, the CPI and the CPI-M were part of the Grand Alliance also that went to polls in 2009. So, it brooks no delay to move the pawns quickly.
