The KCR effect on regional outfits
Even the last vestiges of the Telugu Desam Party are set to disappear from Telangana, with its state president L Ramana dropping enough hints that sooner than later he would be bidding adieu to the party. He is warming up to the TRS as it is the party that is doing well now. When Ramana takes that final leap of faith into the TRS, the TDP - founded in 1982 in Hyderabad by NT Rama Rao - would slip into history's dustbin in Telangana, the way the YSRC did earlier. In the last Assembly elections, only two candidates won on the TDP ticket in Telangana and adding insult to the party chief's injury, they subsequently joined the TRS. The molecular disintegration of the TDP and YSRC in Telangana, while they are still active in Andhra, points to an emerging phenomenon: that a regional party cannot survive in more than one state.
Though the TDP styled itself as a national party after Telangana's formation, for all practical purposes it is limited to Andhra. Similarly, the YSRC too is now restricted to AP though it tried to increase its footprint by contesting in Telangana in 2014, but won only three seats in the Assembly and one in the Lok Sabha. Quick in understanding the implications of the political churn, the YSRC declared it was not interested in contesting subsequent polls in Telangana. Lending credence to the argument that “outsiders” are not welcome in Telangana, people's response remains muted to YS Sharmila's attempts to enter the Telangana political arena under the banner of YSR Telangana party. The Andhra CM's sister has claimed that she has nothing to do with the YSRC but people are not convinced. As she is the daughter of the late YSR who was against the creation of Telangana, they are wary. Her attempts to connect with people by training her guns at KCR have not made much impression. If a strong regional party with moorings in Telangana emerges, it can force the TRS to cede space but that too is a distant possibility at this juncture. Outfits like the Telangana Jana Samiti, founded by Prof M Kodandaram who was at the forefront of the Telangana movement, fell flat in the electoral battlefield, showing that a leader needs to be a suave politician too.