The TRS appears to be on a gravy train even as the Congress and the BJP are clutching at straws to tide over the immediate crisis staring in their faces - facing elections for 120 municipalities and 10 municipal corporations.
The TRS, with a redoubtable leader in KCR, has nothing to lose but all to gain. Even in these days of high octane campaign for and against the CAA and NRC, the TRS apple-cart is in shipshape with KCR’s alter ego Asaduddin Owaisi doing his bidding to rally Muslim voters for TRS. This is to make good for KCR’s silence on CAA and NRC even though the clamour against the CAA and NRC keeps rising in decibels.
The TRS already has an advantage over the Congress, as, according to the leaders of the grand old party, the State government had ‘influenced’ the State Election Commission in coming out with a schedule for the municipal elections though it is yet to provide a list of reserved wards.
Congress suspects that the government, which has already decided on the reservations, had leaked the information to the TRS giving the party enough time to finalise candidates. With the State government setting January 4 as the deadline for completing the electoral rolls for all wards, it is now clear that the official list of reservations would come out only after that date but the nominations will begin on January 8, leaving little time for the Congress and the BJP to finalise its candidates. Regardless of whether the TRS is privy to the reservations or not, it has already stolen a march over the Congress in preparing for the civic body polls which happen to be a bellwether to what urban voters are thinking about the TRS, its ally MIM and the BJP whose new war cry is CAA and NRC.
The TRS, having swept most of the elections barring a few hard knocks on its nose in the Lok Sabha polls, is hoping to see its graph ascend once again. It has already done its homework - the party machinery is well oiled, ready to roll out of Telangana Bhavan. The MLAs and those in charge of Assembly constituencies have already been made accountable for the fortunes of the party in the polls. Then there is the magic wand of KCR which he would wave at the most opportune time, to rally the people behind him like the proverbial Pied Piper.
As the preparations for the polls are underway, KCR, whose MPs had voted against the CAA in Parliament, is honing a strategy to win both the Hindu and Muslim votes at a time when society is being divided on communal lines. Implementation of this kind of strategy is possible only with KCR as he has a comrade-in-arms in Owaisi to help him out with minority voters even though the TRS supremo is not critical of the CAA and NRC, though the TRS MPs had voted against the CAA in Parliament.
On the other hand, this might help him win the hearts of the Hindu moderates, despite the campaign that they are mythical in existence as BJP has already had a highly polarising effect on the Hindu constituency even in Telangana where they are pitted against the Muslims who constitute 12 pc of the population
It is likely that the TRS’ assertion of its secular credentials, though a little muted at present, is on account of the outcome of the Jharkhand election held in the midst of din against the CAA and NRC which is being seen as an indication of the resilience of Indian democracy in straightening itself in the face of a highly polarising effect of the BJP but the purveyors of BJP’s ideology believe that it has nothing to do with CAA since factors very exclusive to Jharkhand had dished out an anti-BJP verdict.
Then there is Owaisi anyway to milch minority votes for KCR. Owaisi has already declared that he would back KCR all the time all his life since he considers him a prophet of secularism.