KCR wants to utilise the coming election to extract maximum benefits from the Centre which hasn’t been “liberal” as far as the demands of Telangana were concerned in the past three years. By holding back his decision, the CM expects the BJP leadership to reach out to him seeking his support to its Presidential candidate, likely to be finalised later this month.
TRS, which commands 14 Lok Sabha MPs and three Rajya Sabha MPs, 92 MLAs and 24 MLCs, holds the key to the BJP-led NDA coalition’s victory in the presidential election. He had pledged his support to the BJP when he called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi last month.
In a meeting of party MPs and MLAs in Hyderabad on 27 April, the CM told his party leaders that he would like to go with the PM and that he had decided to stay away from the Opposition parties’ meeting held at the residence of Sonia Gandhi on 25 May.
The TRS parliamentary party has authorised the CM to take a final call on the party’s stand. “No doubt, he (KCR) will go with BJP, but not without terms and conditions,” a senior TRS MP told The Sunday Guardian on the condition of anonymity.
The TRS MP, who has vast contacts in Delhi circles, is in touch with the CM on the issue for the past few weeks. KCR, who will be facing the next general elections two years from now, will find it difficult to answer the public unless he achieves at least four or five major demands from the Centre this year. The division of the combined High Court (HC) tops KCR’s agenda. Though Andhra Pradesh has been split in 2014, the same HC has been serving both Telangana and residuary AP. Now, the HC has been renamed as High Court of Judicature in Hyderabad. But around 10,000 plus lawyers of Telangana have been agitating for a separate HC for Telangana.
Next on the agenda is handing over of the Defence property of Bison Polo Grounds in Secunderabad for construction of Telangana’s Secretariat and Assembly complex. KCR has been striving hard to build a new Secretariat and Assembly for the newly created state and he found the Polo Grounds suitable for it. But the Defence Ministry is yet to concede his request.
The third and tricky demand will be enhancement of Assembly seats from the present 119 to 153 in the 2019 elections. This is a promise made in the AP Reorganisation Act, 2104, but due to a technical issue, this requires Constitutional amendment. Moreover, the state BJP unit is opposing the increase as it suits the interests of ruling TRS, which wooed many opposition MLAs and promised them tickets from new seats.
The fourth item is the division of around 115 corporations and institutions between Telangana and AP at the earliest. Though several rounds of talks were held between ministers of the two states, there is no solution in sight so far. Even the Governor’s mediation failed to cut ce and now KCR wants the Centre to settle the dispute.