He will abandon efforts to put together a federal front.
Hyderabad: Rattled by his party’s defeat in seven out of Telangana’s 17 Lok Sabha constutuencies, state Chief Minister and TRS president K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) has decided to maintain good ties with Prime Narendra Modi’s government at the Centre. The Telangana Rastra Samithi (TRS) won nine Lok Sabha seats, while its ally Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM retained the Hyderabad seat, while BJP secured four and Congress three MPs in the state.
What shocked KCR most were the defeats of his daughter and Nizamabad MP Kavitha, and of Karimnagar MP, B. Vinod Kumar, who is his confidant. These two heavyweights lost to their BJP rivals, Arvind Dharmapuri and Bandi Sanjay, both novices.
KCR hasn’t called any meetings with senior leaders to introspect on the defeats, but in the past few days he stayed closeted with a couple of aides to analyse the results. Congress’ win in three seats too came as a surprise to the Chief Minister, but these seats were in areas where TRS was not a traditional winner. BJP’s win in four TRS stronghold seats make it the ruling party’s main challenger in 2023.
Sources close to the Chief Minister told this newspaper that he had decided to put an end to his efforts to form a federal front by uniting regional parties and instead focus on issues concerning Telangana in the coming years. He wants to be friends with the BJP government at the Centre and maintain good relations with PM Modi. “We were and we will be friends with Modi,” said a TRS MP.
TRS had supported almost all the decisions of the previous NDA government including demonetisation, GST, President and Vice-President elections, etc. Even now TRS would continue to follow the pattern and back all the moves of the Modi government, sources said. KCR’s efforts for a federal front started only weeks before the general elections and ended with the declaration of the results.
KCR observed in one of the review meetings that Modi’s stupendous victory had more to do with his personal popularity than any efforts made by the BJP across the country, including in Telangana, and hence, it did not diminish TRS’ importance at the state level.
The TRS is happy with its improved vote share of 41.3% as against 39% in the Assembly elections in December 2018, though its Assembly segments fell from 88 then to 71 now. BJP went up from 7% in December 2018 to 19.5% now, as against Congress’ 32% in December to 29% now.
However, the TRS leadership is wary of 7%-10%, or even more, growth in BJP’s vote share in the future. If that happens, it would definitely surpass Congress as the principal challenger to it and become a bigger threat by the next elections. Already, several Congress leaders are planning to join BJP.
TRS leaders are aware that compared to Congress, BJP has a greater appetite and potential to grow in Telangana, thanks to the presence of a large Muslim population here. KCR’s friendship with AIMIM’s Owaisi will help BJP consolidate the Hindu vote. So KCR may now reduce his public appearances with Owaisi and cut Muslim appeasement policies, TRS leaders said.
Secunderabad’s new MP, G. Kishan Reddy’s appointment as the Union Minister of State for Home too is expected to strengthen BJP in Telangana. Kishan Reddy, 55, known for his active politics, lost his Amberpet Assembly seat in the December elections, but has now defeated his TRS rival Talasani Saikiran Yadav by a massive 1.6 lakh votes. Saikiran is the son of Telangana minister Srinivas Yadav.
In his first reaction after the allotment of portfolio, Kishan Reddy said that his aim was to bring BJP to power in Telangana in 2023. “We will fight with the TRS government which helped AIMIM convert Hyderabad into a haven for terrorists and unsocial elements,” Reddy said.
KCR has also decided to maintain cordial relations with his new counterpart in Andhra, Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy. KCR believes that with Jagan, he can secure more funds from the Centre and solve outstanding issues between the two states. With an assertive BJP government lording over him, KCR prefers to be on the good books of the Centre.