Does the Congress want to unseat itself from the position of the main opposition in Telangana and join the brigade of KCR and indirectly endow the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) with the role of the main opposition?
The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), which trounced the Congress and all other opposition parties at the recent byelection to Warangal Lok Sabha constituency, has positioned itself in an enviable position.
The Congress, which has taken a severe drubbing in the elections and forfeited its deposit, must still be feeling that ringing in the ears. Given their anarchic approach, leaders in the State unit began reacting in an interesting manner, if not funny, that’s causing rise of many an eyebrow.
Congress Legislature Party leader in the Telangana Assembly K Jana Reddy and Leader of the Opposition in Telangana Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir reportedly have opened a dialogue with TRS RajyaSabha member K Keshav Rao for an electoral understanding with the TRS for the upcoming elections to the 12 Local Authority Constituencies.
How can the main opposition enter into a truck with the ruling party? What is the Congress party’s idea? Who has empowered the leaders to open a dialogue? Can the Congress, which has to don the mantle of the Opposition in both Houses of legislature, continue to discharge its constitutional obligation of critically examining and analysing the acts of omission and commission of the State Government, if it plays into the hands of the TRS?
Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president N Uttham Kumar Reddy is trying to play cool to the unfolding situation, but the working president of the party unit Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka is very vociferous in airing his opposition to any tie-up with the TRS. He was open in raising the aforementioned questions and taking head-on on the CLP leaders in both Houses of the legislature, questioning their propriety in initiating a dialogue with the TRS.
The Congress leaders who are hobnobbing with the TRS want a seat-sharing arrangement with the TRS for having at least five of its nominees elected. Funny. Would the TRS give in to such quaint demands? Just to ensure that there is no opposition to itself, if at all, the TRS may concede at the most a couple of seats or three to the Congress as part of the quid pro quo arrangement.
Meanwhile, the Congress is making hilarious overtures with the Communist Party of India by proposing to extend its support to the CPI veteran Puvvada NageswaraRao in Khammam district. The electors in the polls are the elected representatives in the local bodies. This naturally changes the dynamics of political equations of the polls, for the parties have different mix at the grass roots level of local governments.
By demonstrating its confusion in full public glare, the Congress party is making a spectacle of itself. Meanwhile, the Congress high command asked the senior leaders to be available in New Delhi. Whether the leadership provides a direction or not, it should rein in the leaders to stick to a certain policy.
It is paradoxical that the main Opposition party, which has to aspire to grab the power, is brazenly entering into a political alliance. What came as a crude joke was the statement of Nalgonda MP Guttha Sukhender Reddy that his party would enter into a truck with the Telugu DesamParty (TDP) for the MLC elections.
The Congress, which was dumped by the TRS soon after the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, had to contest the polls only to face a humiliating defeat at the hands of the TRS.
Now, what is intriguing is why the Congress is eager to commit a political harakiri.
