Readers of all newspapers, not just Telangana editions, but even in cities like New Delhi woke up to the beaming visage of K Chandrasekhar Rao on June 2. After all, the `Father of Telangana state', as his admirers like to call the chief minister, is celebrating two years of the formation of India's 29th and the youngest state. So a few lakh reams of newsprint at taxpayer's cost to bantahai !
KCR has reason beyond the birthday cake to celebrate. Turning conventional political science on its head, he has occupied virtually the entire political space in Telangana. Politicians usually are loathe to create a political vacuum lest a new entity occupy that space and emerge as a rival to the power-that-be. But not KCR. In the last two years, he has systematically killed most of the opposition, by encouraging defections into the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS).
Most of the turncoats have migrated from the Telugu Desam (TDP) to the TRS. The latest being Malla Reddy, the TDP MP from Malkajgiri, the largest parliamentary constituency in India with close to 30 lakh voters. Reddy's departure on June 1 is not a surprise considering he owns a string of engineering and medical colleges in Telangana and it will serve him well to be on the right side of the establishment. For the TDP, his exit means that with just three of the 15 MLAs of the TDP who were elected in 2014 left with Chandrababu Naidu, the bicycle (the party's election symbol) has very few takers in Telangana.
The Congress has seen a political drain as well. Nearly half its legislators and many old-timers have chosen to be in the TRS `pink' of political health. In a majority of the cases, the Gandhi Bhavan to Telangana Bhavan route in Hyderabad is governed by the business interests of the individual leaders or their family members. The conveyer belt of those who pack their bags and move to the TRS house is in constant motion. Most of the Congress leaders who would heap abuse on KCR in the past, have had to eat humble pie and drape the TRS pink scarf around their neck. Komatireddy Venkat Reddy, a contractor-turned-Congress politician from Nalgonda district and former minister in united Andhra Pradesh, is likely to get his TRS visa this week.
The influx has created resentment among the original TRS cadre, who were at the forefront of the agitation demanding statehood for Telangana, at a time when TDP sat on the fence thanks to Naidu's ambivalent stand and the Congress leaders were enjoying the fruits of power in a listless Kiran Kumar Reddy dispensation in united Andhra Pradesh. They feel the likes of former Congress PCC chief D Srinivas (who was nominated to the Rajya Sabha this week) and Talasani Srinivas Yadav (who moved from the TDP to become a minister) have cornered the political goodies, leaving the crumbs to the genuine TRS worker. But given the political structure of the TRS, they have no option but to grin and bear it, hoping the benevolent gaze of KCR will fall on them sooner than later.
The situation has become so desperate for the opposition that foes have turned electoral friends. In the byelection to the Palair assembly constituency in Khammam on May 16, even a joint contest by the Congress and the TDP could not prevent a TRS victory, that too by an impressive margin. Proof that the TRS has managed to occupy the political mindspace of the voter who would much rather go with the ruling party and that the opposition, whatever is left of it, has to really work hard to strengthening itself at the grassroots. Every small and big leader moving with his bunch of followers, has dented the non-TRS parties in Telangana.
The TRS defends this unethical movement of elected representatives as political realignment for the cause of a `Golden Telangana'. The fact that it has been getting electoral support from people - be it the Palair victory or the win in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal poll or bypolls in Medak and Narayankhed - only strengthens the perception that people would much rather have political stability rather than a rickety political structure.
The TDP has to suffer the collateral damage of this TRS aggression. Its alliance partner in Andhra Pradesh and in New Delhi, the BJP no longer is interested in a relationship in Telangana, looking at Naidu's outfit as a liability. Nothing could make KCR, who left the TDP in a huff to form the TRS and launch the Telangana movement in 2001, more happy.
The only significant party that has been untouched by the pink embrace has been the BJP (MIM is a TRS ally in Hyderabad). Its Telangana leaders would like the BJP to emerge as the main opposition to the TRS and hope to make a bid for power in the years to come but the national leadership, it would seem, has other ideas. National BJP president Amit Shah told Telangana leaders in Hyderabad over the weekend that the party had peaked in the north of the Vindhyas like in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and therefore south India is where it needs to win more seats and hunt for allies before the 2019 election.
While some TRS MPs would like an arrangement with Narendra Modi right away, paving the way for a couple of ministerial berths at the Centre, KCR is circumspect. He is believed to have told a confidant, ``The moment I ally with BJP here, I am conceding ground to the Congress. The party is in bad shape, why would I try and revive it.''
BJP sources say while a pre-poll alliance for 2019 is almost ruled out, a post-poll handshake with KCR is more than likely. That will see a power-sharing agreement both in Hyderabad and New Delhi. Which will bring to an end the last opposition party standing in Telangana - the BJP.
The TRS leadership has been selling the dream of an increase in assembly seats in the Telangana assembly - from 119 to 153 - and thereby accommodate most old-timers and newcomers. That, however is unlikely to happen in a hurry and could create turmoil within the party at the time of the next election. But given the lack of viable options, Telangana will continue to live with the TINA (There is no Alternative) factor.
