(AK Reddy)
By now, everybody knows that Telanagana CM KCR wants Assembly polls advanced and AP CM Chandrababu Naidu vouches for polls as per schedule. But why? We know both the leaders are 24×7 polticians. They breathe, sleep and eat politics. Both are shrewd politicians. In that case, their thinking should be similar….? No. It cannot be so simply because politics cannot accommodate copycats!!
CBN held a closed door meeting with Cabinet colleagues and MPs Tuesday evening and a KCR has called for a meeting of TRS leaders on Wednesday, reportedly to discuss the modalities of stepping onto the track of early Assembly polls.
Let’s first see why KCR is eager for early polls to Assembly. Note that tKCR wants Assembly polls at least six months before the Lok Sabha polls and the General elections as per schedule.
The most plausible explanation for KCR’s plan is that he wants to head the Assembly poll campaign and by default the Chief Ministerial face. If he has his way, TRS will win the polls and KCR will be CM again. That’s not the end of it… KCR will then turn into a national leader and strategize for his party in the state and for other “Federal” players in Delhi.
KCR knows very well that State bifurcation has queered the pitch for Congress and for TDP though it is not a national party. It has become tricky for these two parties to plan and execute any political strategy in the “two states” as they were used to deal with them as one earlier. But or KCR, he has one and only Telangana to deal with and the T sentiment as a bulwark against any threat coming from any unknown quarter.
KCR sees every advantage in “going together” with Prime Minister Narendra Modi when it comes to early polls. Every politician believes in give and take. On his part, KCR is holdinmg oput an olive branch to BJP’s national leadership despite all the antagonism showem by the TBJP leaders towards him. Despite his efforts, KCR could not see his nominee being inducted into the Union Cabinet so far. He wants to better those prospects in a hypothetical second term of the NDA. No prizes for guessing who will be his nominee.
KCR has as many 18 welfare schemes- some old, some new and innovative – the latest being ‘Kanti Velugu’ to go and trumpet up before the people. He has already christened the election campaign programme set to be launched as Pragathi Nivedana (which precisely translates to reporting of the developmental efforts to people). He has over the last for and half years tried to pamper every “social group” with funds and Bhavans in Hyderabad. Now he has only the dividends to reap and the same brooks no delay.
The undying Telangana sentiment makes people still vouch for him. Soon after they lost the 2014 Assembly polls T Congress leaders said people wanted to give “one chance” to KCR. But KCR is shrewd enough to get “another chance”, taking advantage of the alleged disunity and infighting in the Congress and BJP. In doing so, KCR will try his best to see that Congress leaders will not have enough time to sink their differences and sing a single tune.
Every ruling dispensation invariably fears one thing, that is, anti-incumbency. KCR cannot be an exception.
Refresh your memories to recollect that the current Secretariat has a ‘Vastu’ defect and it turns early elections into a compulsion!!