Telangana Assembly Elections: The youngest state of India will open doors for the third Assembly Elections on Thursday, 30 November, to elect representatives to the 119 member Legislative Assembly. Since after separation from Andhra Pradesh, Telangana has conducted 2 assembly elections and 2 Lok Sabha elections. The Assembly Polls have only been won by Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao (KCR)’s Bharat Rashtra Samithi (formerly known as the Telangana Rashtra Samithi).
Congress last won an election in undivided Andhra Pradesh in 2009.
However, the grand old party looks to make headway into the state that houses Hyderabad, in the forthcoming Assembly elections.
Telangana is set to witness a three-way battle for the seat of power between BRS, Congress, and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). As the state goes through the mandatory period of 48-hours silence ahead of the assembly elections, let’s take a look at why Congress has been banking on a Prime Minister who was assassinated forty years ago, to win the Telangana Polls.
Indira Gandhi and Telangana
Congress leaders like Priyanka Gandhi and AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge, has been playing on the ‘Indiraamma’ sentiment in order to make space in the Telegu hearts.
But what is Indira Gandhi’s connect with Telangana?
Indira Gandhi had the election from Raebareli in 1977. She floated Congress (I) in 1978 and contested from Medak, other than Raebareli, in the 1980 Lok Sabha elections and won the seat with a huge margin.
When she was assassinated in 1984, Indira Gandhi was an MP from Medak. But the Congress has failed to win Medak, once its stronghold, since 1999.
Who wins Medak now?
The Indira Gandhi bastion went over to KCR’s BRS since the Telangana was formed. The KCR-led party has won the Medak Lok Sabha seat after the separate Telangana movement started and the formation of the second Telugu state.
“Congress promises to bring Indiramma Rajyam in Telangana. What happened during Indiramma Rajyam (Indira’s rule)? Hunger and only hunger deaths, Naxalite movements, people were shot dead and encounters, this is what happened throughout Indiramma Rajyam,” KCR said earlier in a bid to run down the Congress’s campaign around Indira Gandhi.
That the Indiramma card worries KCR ahead of the election is evident when at several occasions the Chief minister of Telangana lashes out at the Congress.
Congress, Indiramma, Telangana
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said the Congress wanted to bring ‘Indiramma Rajyam’ in Telangana because that meant a reign of justice, welfare and development.
Kharge also milked the fact that it was during the Indira Gandhi regime that the Nagarjuna Sagar dam was built and helped farmers of Telangana get water for their land.
“Hadn’t it been for the Nagarjuna Sagar dam, Telangana wouldn’t have been known as a rice bowl of India,” said Kharge.
Further, Indira Gandhi‘s grand-daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, during campaigns have also made several references to Indira Gandhi. You are calling me the new Indiramma, then trust me. I will not make false promises. Vote Congress to power to fulfill the aspirations of statehood,” Priyanka Gandhi had said in May.
“Why do you still remember Indiraji? Why do you still call her Indiramma? The reason is that she gave you land rights. Indira Gandhi understood your plight and gave seven lakh acres of land to the landless,” she said in one of her rallies in the tribal-dominated part of Telangana.
Whether the vote goes to KCR’s BRS, or an Indiramma Rajyam comes to force is what one would see on 30 November and 3 December.
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Updated: 29 Nov 2023, 06:21 PM IST