Thanksgiving has arrived two days in advance in Telangana, though may not be to signify the same reasons as the festival in the United States of America. And, what follows isn’t surely a ‘black’ Friday. But it was offers galore for the second and third rung of politicos of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) as their boss promised opening of the proverbial Pandora’s Box of nominated posts.
The triumphal emergence of the TRS in the byelection has apparently proved the Abraham Lincoln’s oft-quoted saying about democracy : skew it a bit to suit the current circumstances and ascribe the same to Warangal LokSabha bypolls. It is indeed an election of the TRS, for the TRS and by the TRS.
Photos : TRS activists celebrations, KCR press conference
Let us take a look into how the election was of the TRS, for the TRS and by the TRS upside down (rather, in the reverse direction).
Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, for some strange reasons developed an aversion to Dr T Rajaiah, who he had enticed from the Congress and doled out the largesse by making him the Deputy Chief Minister. The CM’s odium to Rajaiah first came out in the open when KCR detested at a public meeting his deputy’s statement that a medical university would be set up in Warangal. Soon enough, KCR had to announce the establishment of the university under compulsion.
In fact, a dalit activist Bakka Judson filed a petition to the Principal Information Officer of the Chief Minister’s Office of Telangana on January 28, 2015 seeking to know the reasons for the sacking of T Rajaiah from the Cabinet, two days after the dismissal of the Deputy CM. The PIO, instead of responding to the query, went quiet on the same and forwarded the query to the Medical and Health department, which was headed by Rajaiah in his capacity as Deputy Chief Minister.
It was just a case of “to-kill-a-dog, call-it-mad” principle. Thus Dr Rajaiaha reputable paediatrician exited the Cabinet. Then came the Telugu Desam’s erstwhile poster boy, Kadiyam Srihari, who went and handed the letter of his party’s intent to separate Telangana, to then Home Minister Susheel Kumar Shinde.
Srihari’s bitterest criticism of Chandrababu Naidu, changing loyalties to the TRS, and his election to Warangal Lok Sabha with a thumping majority are all history now. He stepped into the shoes that were removed forcibly from the feet of Dr Rajaiah. As part of the constitutional obligation, Srihari quit his job as a Parliamentarian and became an “insignificant” MLC. Thus, both Deputy CMs in KCR’s Cabinet are representing the Upper House in the bicameral legislature of Telangana.
This naturally caused a byelection to the Warangal LokSabha seat. So, we now know that the election was caused by the TRS.
Take a look as to why is it for the TRS.
The TRS, which came to power in 2014, with a niggardly majority of 63 seats in the 119-member Assembly had to usurp several MLAs of the opposition parties into its fold, throwing suitable baits.
KCR, who had vacated the Medak Lok Sabha seat as part of constitutional obligation, proved a point first by having his party nominee elected to the Lok Sabha with 3.60 lakh votes of majority in September 2014. A stunning majority, indeed.
Riding on the wave of such popularity, KCR always thinks he needs endorsement to his acts of political and administrative omissions and commissions time and again from the people. The Warangal bypoll has given him more oxygen than necessary. He can now breathe easy for a long time.
Well, the election is “of the TRS” because 1. The TRS has all its resources at its beck and call; 2. The TDP almost ignored the election, though its participation in backing the BJP was just tokenism, 3. The BJP neither has a face nor base in Warangal, 4. The Congress grappled with its own set of setbacks, 5. The Communists as usual used the polls for renewal of their political presence; and 6. YSR Congress demoed that it’s a political dwarf in front of TRS.
What has KCR proved through the election? All the prepositions in Lincoln’s maxim are accurate.
