Telangana BJP, Congress try to shape up
Two opposition parties in Telangana—the Congress and the BJP—appear to have already begun their spadework for the next Assembly elections in 2023, after their humiliating defeat at the hands of the TRS in 2018. The BJP has a new-look executive headed by a BC leader, Bandi Sanjay Kumar, who is also a Lok Sabha member. Another BC leader, Dr K Lakshman, is now president of the BJP’s National OBC Morcha. And D K Aruna, a leader from the powerful Reddy community, has been elevated as the party’s national vice-president.
In the Congress camp, the party appointed Manickam Tagore, an MP from Tamil Nadu, as its in-charge in Telangana. It is strange that the high command chose the comparatively lightweight post of in-charge to
oversee the Telangana unit but a general secretary to guide neighbouring Andhra Pradesh where the party has no existence after the state’s bifurcation.
The task before the two parties is huge as in the last Assembly elections, the BJP won only one seat in the 119-member House and the Congress 19. Adding insult to injury, CM K Chandrashekar Rao spirited away 13 Congress MLAs. While the Congress remains a divided house riven by factions, the BJP, though a little better, has a lot of hard work to do. The performance of both parties in most elections after the Assembly polls—municipal, gram sarpanch and president of local bodies—has been rather poor.
They could not make any dent on the TRS though the Congress picked up three Lok Sabha seats and the BJP four in 2019, which is considered a flash in the pan. To inspire their cadre to take a quantum leap, both parties need to forge an emotional bond with the state’s issues and the people.
As for the Congress, even after state unit president Uttam Kumar Reddy offered to quit after the Assembly poll debacle, the high command sat on the proposal. It ought to now give Manickam Tagore full powers to put together a team to try and recover lost ground. Needless to say, the turf war will be intense, since KCR is a formidable foe. Whether or not the two parties would rise from the ashes, time alone can tell.