By S. Sethuraman
Telangana Chief Minister, Mr K Chandrasekara Rao, a showman to claim unparalleled but untested achievements for his young State, has broken the ice for impending battles for 2019 in the South, where the Modi-led BJP has planned a major foray to earn a pan Indian presence.
Mr Rao in unseemly hurry has dissolved the 119-member Assembly and is working hard, in concert with the Centre, to get the election held in November-December, otherwise due only by May 2019 along with Lok Sabha Poll. He hopes the Election Commission would tie it up with elections to four states scheduled for the turn of the year.
Mr Rao whose ”Federal Front” idea to take on both BJP and Congress in the Lok Sabha poll, failed to take off because other regional leaders thought it unworkable without the Congress, quickened up on his stratagem of holding Telangana election early. This is thought to work to the advantage of his Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) returning in strength and then Mr Rao would push himself for a national role at the time of Lok Sabha elections.
The desperation of Mr Rao, somewhat comparable to that of BJP in securing renewed mandate at the Centre and readiness to strike new alliances, is mainly attributable to the strong challenge that a resurgent Congress has thrown at the Rao regime. The Congress has also drawn up its manifesto and is selecting candidates.
The Congress President Mr Rahul Gandhi, who had launched the party campaign last month with a bus yatra, is visiting the State later this month. Ms, Sonia Gandhi, who was primarily behind the UPA Government decision to bifurcate integrated Andhra Pradesh in 2014 is also expected to address a couple of meetings.
In Mr Rao’s calculation, the sooner he cashes in on the “wild enthusiasm” seen by his party at present, the better it would be for TRS, Otherwise, the challenge would harden if the Congress and other parties (including BJP which is also working hard to create its own space in Telangana) gain more time if the state election is deferred till May next. Also, it is possible that Mr Rao does not want to club the state election with Lok Sabha’s – a risky path.
Mr Rao has been asked to continue as head of caretaker government by the Governor to whom the Chief Minister handed on September 6 his Cabinet resolution recommending dissolution of the Legislative Assembly. Displaying supreme confidence Mr Rao has announced the list of candidates for 105 out of 119 constituencies and launched the election campaign on September 7. His plan is to address 100 meetings in 50 days.
After Karnataka, where BJP, the largest single party, could not come to power as Congress and JD(S) struck an alliance after the May elections, Mr Amit Shah sees Telangana as “our next target”. He has said he would take full responsibility for victory of BJP in Assembly elections. The Congress, which has done enough groundwork is not unnerved by Mr Rao’s tactics of dissolving the Assembly for an early election and weaken the opposition. Congress has taken the line of exposing failures of fulfilment of promises made by TRS Government at the time of 2014 elections including distribution of three acres of land to Dalits.
Mr Rao, whose self-confidence is derived from a plethora of welfare schemes, says he would not ask for votes until “I give every home clean drinking water” from the ongoing project. TRS Government has given more attention on irrigation and drinking water projects.
Evidently, Mr Rao plans to pass on the mantle to his son Mr K T Rama Rao, Minister for IT, depending on how the assembly poll ends, so that he can free himself for the national stage. BJP may seek tie-up with TRS for Lok Sabha elections (for its 17 seats). TRS leader Mr Rama Rao argues his father, a “visionary” has shown the country what he can do with innovative schemes in four years and India needs “thinking leaders” like him at the Centre.
TRS expects to win 15 out of 17 Lok Sabha seats and more than 109 seats in the 119-member Assembly. The Congress says it would win minimally 80 seats, well above the majority margin in the forthcoming Assembly poll. Talks are also under way for a Congress-TDP alliance for the Telangana assembly elections, in the first instance, and possibly it could be extended to Andhra Pradesh where the Assembly and Lok Sabha (25 seats) elections are due by May next.
TDP leader and Chief Minister Mr Chandrababu Naidu favours alliance with the Congress. Mr Naidu has voiced his disgust with the Modi Government’s policies, especially the way it rejected his repeated requests for according special category status to Andhra Pradesh, as promised by the then UPA Government as part of scheme of bifurcation of integrated Andhra Pradesh in 2014. The Centre has also not matched up to Mr Naidu’s expectations of financial aid for its new capital building and major irrigation projects.
Political alignments are yet to take shape in Tamil Nadu after Mr M K Stalin’s recent election as DMK President. Mr Stalin, anointed by his late father “Kalaignar “Karunanidhi, has now become virtually the successor to carry forward the Dravidian ideology. Mr Stalin has underlined the four principles of the Dravidian movement – self-respect, egalitarianism, secularism and rationalism. He was also critical of Modi Government’s policies which threatened “established institutions” and secularism and said the spread of communal forces must be arrested.
Mr Stalin does not face any threat of rivalry at present as his elder brother Mr M K Alagiri’s move to stage a mass rally of support for him on September 5 proved a tame affair. There is no prospect of his expulsion from the party by Mr Karunanidhi being revoked either.
DMK remains a strong cadre-based party and the next elections are three years away. Mr Stalin has meanwhile to build an alliance for the Lok Sabha elections. It is here BJP is reportedly trying to insert itself suggesting it could be a stronger partner than the Congress in the alliance to win the maximum out of 39 seats of Tamil Nadu in Lok Sabha. (IPA Service)
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