HYDERABAD: The saffron surge in the north has a Mexican wave-like effect on the BJP cadres in Telangana. Heady with the party steam-rolling to power in UP and three other states, the party leaders are now on an overdrive to take on Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao in the next election.
After the party emerged victorious in the elections, Union Minister for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said in Delhi: “Telangana and AP are our next targets,” while an exultant party’s Telangana unit president Bandi Sanjay Kumar said: “We are ready to take on KCR even if elections are held tomorrow.”
There is a sense of de javu among the party workers. They now believe anything could happen. They refer to how the party which won only one seat in the 2018 Assembly elections had made strides.
Ready to take on KCR, says Bandi
After BJP emerged victorious in the northern States, an exultant Telangana unit chief Bandi Sanjay Kumar said: “We are ready to take on KCR even if elections are held tomorrow.”
BJP’s victory may slow down KCR’s national stage plan
The party bounced back from the Assembly-election-inflicted humiliation and picked up four Parliament seats in general elections in the following year and then went on to win two more Assembly seats in by-elections. In the GHMC elections in between, it had turned the tables against the TRS. It wrested 43 of TRS’ sitting seats and won an additional five seats, sending out a message loud and clear that it is a force to reckon with.
Now, turbo-charged with the massive success the party had scored in the north, the saffron party leaders are baying for KCR. Lately, they have been sharpening their strategies to proselytise the Hindu voters into Hindutva voters. As Telangana, more so Hyderabad, is virgin soil for the growth of BJP given its huge Muslim population, party Bandi Sanjay Kumar had used the Hindutva and nationalism cards effectively in GHMC elections and reaped a rich harvest of votes. The party leaders are already talking about double engine governance, meaning that the BJP should be in power both at the Centre and State for a better tomorrow. Irrepressible MLA T Raja Singh said: “Sanjay too will use the bulldozer to demolish the ‘corrupt and mafia’ raj of KCR”.
The TRS, according to sources, is weighing its options carefully in the wake of the resounding victory of BJP. The party is now washing off the taint that it is a covert friend of the BJP. In fact, the relations between them began souring after the fiery campaign by the BJP in the GHMC elections in December, 2020. When the Centre refused to procure rabi paddy from State in November last year, the differences reached a flash point. KCR seemed to have crossed the Rubicon when he totally ignored PM’s visit to Muchintal near here in February to unveil Ramanujacharya’s statue.
In the wake of the election results in the north, KCR would have to quickly redraw his strategy to face the Hindutva card of the BJP as it is showing traction as evidenced in the GHMC elections. Apart from the mega job notification decision, which would to some extent soothe the frayed tempers of the unemployed youth, the party supremo is understood to be looking for emotive issues to retain the voters like the Telangana sentiment, in the next elections. His plans to build a national alternative to BJP might also slow down somewhat as the victory of the BJP has dampened the spirits of the Opposition at the national level. The CM would be concentrating more on facing the immediate challenge of winning the Assembly elections, which are less than two years away or even this December itself, should he choose to go in for an early election.
The Congress is now left on its own in the State, with the party having been wiped out in the five northern States, including its stronghold of Punjab. Dissidence against its State unit chief A Revanth Reddy is inflicting a death by thousand cuts on the party. He would have to plough a lonely furrow as he cannot expect any support from the party high command, including resources, the most vital component, as the party leadership no longer appeared to be bothered about south.
Time for KCR to redraw strategy
The TRS, according to sources, is weighing its options carefully in the wake of the resounding victory of BJP. KCR would have to quickly redraw his strategy to face the Hindutva card of the BJP as it is showing traction as seen in the GHMC elections.