K Chandrashekar Rao plays cards close to chest
As Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao lays the foundation stone for the TRS party office near Vasant Vihar Metro Station in Delhi today, he will once again be baring his political ambitions of becoming a key player at the national level. At present, KCR is watching the changing patterns in the political kaleidoscope to firm up his next gambit and is waiting to get a clear indication as to whether the ideologically disparate opposition parties at the national level could ever come together. If they do, KCR might play his part in forging opposition unity, which he tried in 2019 successfully.
KCR’s federal front concept back then suffered a structural weakness as it excluded the Congress for the simple reason that he was fighting the same party in his home state. But the contradiction persists even now as the weakened Congress is gaining in strength once again in Telangana. As politics make for strange bedfellows, KCR, might, after all, find himself in the midst of anti-BJP parties including the Congress without which any anti-BJP coalition may not get anywhere. At the same time, if the future is bleak for the Opposition, he might be on the BJP’s page. At the moment, KCR is playing his cards close to his chest, neither appearing to be at loggerheads with the BJP or the Congress at the national level. After blowing hot at farm laws in the past, he called on the prime minister. Later, the TRS changed its stance and its leaders began singing the chorus that they would extend issue-based support to the NDA.
For an Indian politician, politics of convenience and compromise are not an anathema. Look at how the TDP, founded on ‘anti-Congressism’ by the late NTR, could join hands with the Congress in 2019 after being with the BJP in earlier elections. Once bitten twice shy, KCR may not rush this time but take a calculated decision.