TRS plays the job card to draw youth
Once bitten, twice shy, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao is now doing a course correction to enlist the support of the youth whom he had ignored after riding to power in 2014 and then again in 2018. This is one of his topmost priorities before the Assembly polls in 2023. Till the day the TRS lost the Dubbaka by-election, KCR had no doubt about his party’s prowess in winning any election.
But then came the bypoll outcome in which the youth vote played a crucial role. The TRS leaders tried to convince themselves that the defeat was a mere blip but the results of the GHMC elections that followed made them realise their mistake. The chief minister is now intent on assuaging the ruffled feelings of the estranged sections, mainly the youth.
The Telangana movement, in fact, took birth with the promise of employment to all. As against a whopping 25 lakh educated unemployed, the state government has provided jobs to only a few thousands so far. To appease the youth, KCR is now busy filling 50,000 posts. He knows that without their support, he cannot wade through the muddy waters of electoral politics with the BJP bidding for power in the next elections.
There is already criticism that KCR is not serious about filling 50,000 jobs and that it is only a move to get the youth to support him in the upcoming elections to the municipal corporations of Warangal and Khammam, two MLC graduate constituencies and by-election to the Nagarjuna Sagar Assembly seat.
KCR has the Presidential order on the zonal system in public employment amended but the posts are yet to be divided to fit the zones, which is a laborious process. The Telangana chief minister has already lost a lot of time. He has to hurry or the students and youth may queer the pitch to such an extent that he may not be able to repair it. Trust is easier to lose but difficult to build.