By fielding former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao’s daughter Vani Devi Surabhi for the Hyderabad-Rangareddy-Mahabubnagar MLC graduates seat, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao appears to have shown robust intent to wrest the seat from the BJP and lift the sagging morale of his party workers.
After the drubbing in the by-election to the Dubbaka Assembly seat in northern Telangana and the lacklustre performance in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation elections, KCR is keen on invigorating the party cadre by putting up an effective counter to the resurgent BJP. By giving the ticket to Vani Devi, KCR also appears to be trying to appropriate Narasimha Rao’s legacy and thus reinforce his Telangana credentials.
KCR apparently sought to honour a woman achiever and Vani Devi fits the bill as she is the founder of the Sri Venkateswara Group of Institutions. That she is the daughter of the father of economic reforms in the country, who was also a great litterateur, added to her political resume. KCR himself is a man of letters and has high reverence for genuine intellectuals. The MLC constituency has more than five lakh voters.
Of them, the Brahmin voter count, particularly that of women, is estimated to be quite high. That said, it may not easy for KCR to pull off a victory since the TRS had never won the Hyderabad seat in the past. The seat is now being held by the BJP’s N Ramachandra Rao. Another important contender is Prof K Nageswar, who represented it in the council twice in the past. Both Nageswar and Ramachandra Rao are already campaigning against the TRS.
It remains to be seen if KCR would be able to pull off a dramatic victory. Two more elections to Warangal and Khammam municipal corporations and a by-election for Nagarjuna Sagar Assembly seat are in the horizon. Their collective outcome could perhaps decisively indicate which way the political wind is blowing.