By Sushil Kutty
Headlines like ‘People ready to defeat BRS’ do not reveal the whole truth. There is a media narrative against Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao and the man is media-meat. If the media pronouncements are taken at face value, the BRS has been scalped and laid out to dry. Everybody of note, from inside and outside Telangana, is predicting KCR is soon-to-be erstwhile Chief Minister because BRS is not in the pink of health.
For example, Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai should be concentrating on strengthening the BJP in Tamil Nadu, but, quite uncharacteristically, the man was contributing his two pence to the “let’s defeat BRS” campaign, stating unequivocally that KCR and his party BRS are relying on “drug culture” and “liquor income” to fight and win the elections, which is not only a foolhardy claim but also doomed to be proven wrong.
Comparing the Telangana government of KCR with the Tamil Nadu government of MK Stalin was another Annamalai insult. The cop-turned-neta said KCR and Stalin were two of a kind, dependent on excise income to run their states. Annamalai claimed more than 80 percent of the adult males in Telangana and Tamil Nadu were alcoholics.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin is used to such statements from Annamalai, but for KCR, it was a bolt from the blue. Yes, elections while cementing old enemies also make new enemies. And KCR has enough old enemies not to be bothered about adding new ones. Among KCR’s old enemies are the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Congress leader and Wayanad Member of Parliament Rahul Gandhi is a born KCR-foe and Prime Minister Narendra Modi hasn’t been a KCR-friend, ever. KCR’s lean lanky frame doesn’t fit in the frame with these two gentlemen in it. KCR’s Rahul-antipathy is known to all and the KCR barbs directed at Prime Minister Narendra Modi have made top headlines.
Note that both Telangana and Tamil Nadu have dynasts and Annamalai was applying Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dynasty-plank to cast aspersions on the functioning of the Telangana government. For the BJP, family rule is an election issue in Telangana. Opinion polls targeting Telangana have been consistently giving the BJP poor ratings, but listen to the BJP and the party is living on a diet of every dog will have its day.
The ‘People are ready to defeat the BRS government’ was Annamalai talking. Like every BJP honcho, Annamalai is also addicted to heaping praise on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. And corruption is another election issue for the BJP in Telangana. But people have stopped asking why KCR’s daughter K Kavita isn’t getting the ED-treatment reserved for AAP leaders? So when Annamalai says “if you bless the BJP, we will investigate the corruption charges”, it is hard not to snigger.
Then, there is Annamalai’s Telangana counterpart, G Kishan Reddy. His claim of a “silent revolution” against BRS fits the media narrative. But when he marinates with “the BJP will come to power”, then he goes off-key. Media surveys and opinion polls give the BJP only single-digits, way behind both the Congress and the BRS. Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM will scrounge up five to six seats and the BJP will get as many; one of them the Goshamahal seat of ‘Tiger’ Raja Singh.
Actually, all the positive vibes are for the Congress. Media surveys and opinion polls have latched on to the Congress bandwagon. And while the BJP is quick to point out that people are blocking BRS campaign vehicles from entering their villages, there is no such bar on Congress campaign vehicles. The BJP’s objection is that the Congress government of Karnataka has imposed a “Telangana election tax” on its citizens. And like in all the states going to polls, there’s the BJP’s electoral promise of “double engine ki Sarkar”.
It also serves BJP’s interests when people are told that both BRS and the Congress are in a conspiracy to defeat the BJP, even if the ground reality is quite the opposite. KCR’s comment that there will be a coalition government after the 2024 general elections hasn’t gone down well with the BJP. G. Kishen Reddy says by then the BJP will be in power in Telangana.
The reality, however, is that the Congress is riding a wave and wallowing in tsunami-like optimism. Of course, like in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, the Congress cannot stop talking about guarantees, ranging from 24-hour free electricity to waiving farmers’ debts and monthly financial payments for women. The BRS says the Congress manifesto is “useless and full of lies”. Bottom-line is with all three parties claiming to be top of the heap, voters have their task cut out. (IPA Service)
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