Chasing national ambitions while maintaining TRS supremacy in the state is no easy task
Chasing national ambitions while maintaining TRS supremacy in the state is no easy task
Last week, political strategist Prashant Kishor and actor-turned-politician Prakash Raj visited Telangana for extensive deliberations.
The visit was made by Chief Minister K. This comes days after Chandrashekhar Rao met his Maharashtra counterpart Uddhav Thackeray and Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar. Mr. Raj met Mr. Rao at the Mumbai airport and was present in meetings with the two leaders.
If the pictures of Mr Raj being received by Mr Rao at the airport caught everyone’s imagination, it is learned that the actor and Mr Kishor had met Mr Rao a few days later at his farmhouse. He also visited two reservoirs, a resettlement and resettlement colony for project displaced persons, an integrated vegetarian and non-vegetarian market, an auditorium and a crematorium at Siddipet.
The ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) highlighted Mr Kishor’s visit and said his meeting with Mr Rao was only a part of the country’s tour to understand the leaders’ views on the political situation. A senior leader said Mr Rao explained the gist of his meeting with Mr Thackeray to Mr Kishor. Mr. Kishor presented his work as the founder of the Indian Political Action Committee. “But our bosses are not so easily deluded,” the leader said, adding that Mr Raj was more present to discuss future political events in which he could play a part.
TRS leaders said Mr Kishor was tasked with charting the party’s prospects in the next assembly elections. His team will be deployed to survey the pulse of the public and suggest corrective action.
Mr Kishor’s visit was dismissed by the Congress as an attempt to weaken the party. The Congress alleged that he was trying to make the electoral contest triangular in Telangana which includes TRS, BJP and Congress. The Congress accused Mr Rao of indirectly supporting Mr Modi to destabilize the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance by ousting his allies such as the DMK and Shiv Sena. All India Congress Committee secretary Madhu Yaskhi said Mr Raj was eyeing a Rajya Sabha seat from the TRS after he lost the Lok Sabha elections in Karnataka last time.
These allegations were refuted by BJP state president Bandi Sanjay Kumar, who said that the BJP believes in growing on its own; There was no compulsion to weaken other parties. He criticized Mr Kishor and Mr Raj as divisive forces who were trying to destabilize the country.
Telangana Jana Samiti president M. Kodandaram accused Mr. Kishor of having no political or moral beliefs. Communist Party of India state secretary Chada Venkata Reddy said the meeting showed Mr Rao’s eagerness to enter national politics. But so far he is just making rhetoric.
The popular belief is that Mr. Rao is trying to build common ground in his efforts to form an anti-BJP front with Mr. Kishor and Mr. Raj. Mr Kishor has said in several interviews that it is not difficult to defeat the BJP if the opposition parties come together on common issues. Mr. Rao has also raised the agenda of coming together on common issues in his meetings with opposition leaders. Mr Rao saw an opportunity to collaborate with Mr Raj as the latter was the leading light in the campaign against the BJP in Karnataka following the assassination of his friend. Journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh.
Mr Rao’s priority is to enter the national stage and hand over power in Telangana to his son and minister KT Rama Rao. But that would mean putting the BJP in a healthy competition, keeping the Congress away in the state and entering the national scene at the same time, which is no easy task.
rahul.n@thehindu.co.in