HYDERABAD: Contrary to feverish speculation that TRS supremo and Chief Minister K Chadrasekhar Rao is likely to part ways with the Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC), barely five months after sealing a deal with it to help him retain power in next year’s Assembly elections, it appears that the engagement between the two is still intact.
Rishi Raj Singh, Director, I-PAC, confirmed to TNIE that reports in the media “predicting a so-called fallout between TRS and I-PAC are speculative in nature. There is absolutely no change in our engagement with the TRS. Our commitment remains intact.”
This begs the question as to why rumours are swirling in the first place. Prashant Kishor, founder of I-PAC, who is now charting his own course in Bihar, had held extensive discussions with KCR and his son and IT Minister KT Rama Rao in April this year after which it was decided that the political consulting body would be working for the TRS. Initially, it opened its office near the Lotus Pond and began working for the TRS in Telangana and the Jagan Mohan Reddy-led YSRCP in Andhra. Given space and operational constraints, it moved its office to an area near the IKEA store and subsequently, shifted a substantial number of staff to Vijayawada for better coordination with the YSRC in Andhra.
“But our people in Hyderabad are still working for the TRS. We have visited almost all the districts and did groundwork in Munugode too which is headed for a bypoll soon,” a source in I-PAC said, clarifying that they were ready to go full throttle in the State at any moment.
I-PAC chalking out social media strategies for TRS
Nonetheless, KCR’s intention to float a national party has given I-PAC reason to pause.
The agreement was to campaign for the TRS in the State but now, KCR wants Prashant Kishor’s team to give him a boost at the national level.
Sources admitted that it is easier said than done as it requires more time, brains and offices, not to speak of the expenditure, across the country. The feedback given by I-PAC after its groundwork is learnt to be on expected lines. The TRS is on shaky ground at home. Anti-incumbency against the government in general and several legislators in particular is a reality which KCR himself knows full well. Currently, I-PAC appears to be crafting social media strategies for the TRS.