BJP draws anti-TRS forces as Congress cedes Telangana space
After its plans for expansion in the South flopped both in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, and with the prospects not so bright in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana offers the only ray of hope for the Bharatiya Janata Party. The hope, too, stems from the absolute misery the Congress faces even in states where it was once a powerful political player. Telangana is one of the few states where those dissatisfied with the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi, which is into its second term, practically have no alternative to look at other than the BJP. Despite successive defeats at the hustings, both in the state elections in 2018 and the string of bypolls later, the Congress has not even settled its leadership question, though the incumbent sent in his resignation multiple times. No political party that wants to be relevant can push itself so deep into the pit that coming out of it would become almost impossible.
Viewed in this context, the choice that former minister in the KCR government, Eatala Rajender, appears to have made is not surprising. Dismissed from the Cabinet and official agencies sent after him to hurt his financial interests, Rajender perhaps found no other way except taking a flight to Delhi to meet top BJP leaders seeking shelter; his formal joining is slated to happen sooner than later. At least getting associated with the party in power at the Centre will make him less vulnerable, or so he seems to think.
For the BJP, it has nothing to lose, even if there are no immediate gains. After the impressive performance in the Hyderabad corporation elections, the saffron party couldn’t put up even a decent show in the other polls that followed. Its local leaders, though, lose no opportunity to project that the BJP is the only alternative to TRS in 2023. A more arduous path for the once Marxist-Leninist Rajender could have been to float another regional formation and seek to emerge as the cohesive force for all nonTRS entities. But that requires a lot of hard work and risk-taking. When financial interests dictate political decision-making, there aren’t too many choices.