HYDERABAD: The ‘rainbow’ alliance of People’s Front, comprising Congress, TDP, CPI and TJS, met with severe backlash from the people. Congress’ tally in the new Assembly has been reduced to 19 seats. This is in stark contrast with Congress’ good performances in Rajasthan, Chattisgarh and even Madhya Pradesh. The only other Alliance partner to have won any seats was Telugu Desam Party. Kodandaram’s Telangana Jana Samithi and Communist Party of India went out for ducks.
As soon as the counting began, it was evident that TRS candidates were leading in a large number of seats. What bothered the Alliance’s leaders was perhaps the fact that their candidates were far behind their TRS opponents in most of them. To add insult to injury, several heavyweights such as Revanth Reddy, K Jana Reddy, DK Aruna, Komatireddy Venkat Reddy and Konda Surekha lost their ‘safe’ seats. TDP seniors Nama Nageswara Rao, Dayakar Reddy and even party chief Chandrababu Naidu’s niece Nandamuri Suhasini also bit the dust.
Though there are several reasons for the Congress-led alliance’s miserable performance in the polls, its alliance with 37-year-old rival TDP seems to have been the most detrimental. TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao successfully managed to portray Naidu as ‘anti-Telangana’. He had, multiple times during his public meetings, claimed that a win for Naidu’s party would not bode well for the people of Telangana. Amid such criticism, the former united-AP Chief Minister’s multiple public meetings in Telangana, where he stood on stage with Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, only damaged the Alliance’s chances of giving a respectable performance.
There also seemed to be a lack of coordination and unity among seniors in Congress, who failed badly in galvanising ground level cadres to take on a resurgent and strong TRS. It took them a long time to quell dissidence that bubbled up immediately after tickets were announced by AICC leadership.
TJS chief Kodandaram’s credibility did not translate to any votes. In any case, giving nearly eight tickets to a newly formed TJS did not help much either.
At the end of the day, it looked like the people had never accepted the Alliance to begin with. Nothing, including Sonia Gandhi’s contribution to Telangana, populist promises like loan waivers, one lakh government jobs and unemployment stipend, worked in the Alliance’s favour. Also, their attempts at winning the support of BC organisation leaders like R Krishnaiah, MRPS founder Manda Krishna Madiga, balladeer Gadar was expected to strengthen the Alliance but they were non-starters.