After hitting the ‘Andhra party’ TDP irrecoverably, the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti started wooing the Congress leaders into its fold. The party on Tuesday admitted former Congress minister from Warangal Basavaraju Saraiah into the party. He accepted Pink Kanduva from chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and joined the party. In the next few days many more Congress leaders from districts are likely to join the TRS, which is bound to unsettle the opposition party.
After losing many important MLAs and prominent leaders, the TDP has lost voice and teeth in Telangana. The only articulate leader Revanth Reddy is tainted by the cash for vote scam. The state party president L Ramana, a gentleman politician, is not a member in the Assembly and is not a match to the ruling party’s front-line leaders such as KT Ramarao, T Harisharao and Kavita in political battles.
It appears that KCR is planning to obliterate the Congress also in the state so that there won’t be any organization around which can raise accusing finger at the governmental programs. Separate Telanana has not produced yet any organization that can keep a watch on the happenings in the state.
Finishing TDP has proven easier for KCR because he had branded it ‘Andhra party’ before hitting it. And T-people have formed an unfriendly opinion about it. The Congress, however, can’t be brushed aside like the TDP as it is a party entrenched deeply among some sections of the state.
Chief minister KCR, who was a voracious reader, might have come across the famous quote of US president Richard Nixon, ” a man is not finished when he is defeated,”. Though opposition parties might have bit the dust in the recent elections, they can rise from the ashes if conditions turn favorable. So KCR is not happy with simple defeat of the opposition parties at the hustings; his mission, it appears from his actions, is to crush the party to such a level that it should not rear its head at least for ten or fifteen years. That KCR is personally offering Kanduva to every defector shows the significance he attaches to latter’s arrival in the party. Every district has a couple for former ministers, former MPs and former MLAs craving political attention. All these leaders are expected to gravitate towards TRS in the next few days.
The “Mission Kakatiya” in politics is to finish the opposition in the state by the time he anoints son K T Ramarao as chief minister and he takes Northward journey to become NDA partner in New Delhi.
The trouble with Congress is that the party is not finished yet. It has strong leadership at the helm of affairs who have enough lung and muscle power. They have energies to bounce back at an appropriate time. If this party is not crippled irreparably , the vestiges have the potential to become thorn in the flesh of KTR. The wooing of bc leader Sariah is part of this “Political Mission Kakatiya”- nobody should be available even if anybody wants to organize and foment trouble to the TRS government from within or outside in future .
A spin off benefit from Saraiah’s defection is that this took place just before the election to Warangal municipal corporation. This may demoralize a section of Congress cadre and sends across a message that TRS has no serious rival in the fray and win is assured.
