CR vs The Rest, Telangana Voter in The Tight Spot

TIR, 28 April 2014 , Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh: Telangana is seemingly appearing as a classic example of a constant battle between the Head and the Heart. After a long spirited grind to attain its own identity, now is the time to map the future plan. The 2014 Lok Sabha elections and Assembly elections stand as a dilemma for the region amounting to its ballot. On one hand, K Chandrashekhar Rao has been the face of this 13 year long struggle and on the other, Congress helped stamping it. It all lands the Telangana voter in a tight spot—between the terrible twins within. The heart says TRS while the head calls for Congress.

The Telangana picturesque broadly emerges as a fight between KCR and the rest. Despite the fact that there is a multi-cornered war across in all the 17 Lok Sabha seats and 119 Assembly seats, the crux says it’s KCR versus the rest.

KCR is seeking votes in a state he calls his own and rightly so, TRS has been the leading force behind the toil and tussle for Telangana. On the other side of the coin, the ruling Congress is bugling its fulfillment of promise of a separate state and demands a payback in terms of votes.

And the whole political façade lands the voter in a dilemmatic situation where he has to choose between the heart and the head.

The balloter associates statehood with KCR and he, the charismatic leader, is undoubtedly the most popular face in the political realm of the soon-to-be state. Besides, his oratory skills and political gambles hardly leave scope for any other politico to fit in.

But what crosses our mind is— why the Telangana voter is confused! If they truly believe in KCR, it should be a clear verdict. Digging deep into the political pitch, we understand that it’s the TRS’ not-so-organised ‘organisational structure’, which is making the voters think twice. While the Congress has a well oiled structure and booth level workers, TRS needs to put in a little more effort to establish its political grounds. This way, TRS may have to fight more to translate the goodwill into votes.

Besides the organisational structure, the ‘family business’ allegations on KCR are also tarnishing his political destiny.

Hoping to sail smoothly, KCR is fighting the Lok Sabha and Assembly election from Medak and Gajwel respectively. T Harish Rao, his nephew, is contesting from Siddipet in Medak district. KCR’s daughter K Kavitha is going to make her electoral debut from Nizamabad Lok Sabha seat against Congress MP Madhu Yakshi Goud. His son, KT Ramarao, is seeking a re-election from the Sircilla assembly seat. These things have aroused strong criticism that KCR is running a family business in form of the state.

Nonetheless, super rich Dr Konda Vishweshwar Reddy has been fielded by KCR against former Andhra Pradesh home minister Sabita Indra Reddy’s son Karthik Reddy. Vishweshwar Reddy happens to be the grandson of Telangana leader Ranga Reddy and the nephew of former chief minister Dr M Chenna Reddy.

Earlier KCR was contesting from Mahboobnagar, a seat now acquired by veteran Congress leader S Jaipala Reddy. Also, Congress’ union ministers Balram Naik and Survey Sathyanarayana will also try their luck in the poll panache.

While the war is sore between Congress and TRS, the BJP-TDP alliance hopes to score 1-2 seats here. Veteran leaders Nagam Janardhana Reddy and Bandaru Dattathreya will be contesting from Mahboobnagar and Secundarabad respectively.

In Hyderabad, MIM’s Asaduddin Owaisi is seeking a re-election with a 65 per cent Muslim vote bank. YSRCP hopes to hit the bull’s eye with retired DGP of Andhra Pradesh V Dinesh Reddy in Malkajgiri, India’s largest seat (voter-wise).

From veterans swapping parties and parties swapping allegations, there is enough fire in the electoral belly. And Andhra Pradesh is no exception to this. KCR hits out at the Congress and the TDP at any given chance. He was quoted saying that Chandrababu Naidu is an ‘Andhrawala’ and purely had no business to live in Telangana.

Well, the smoke’s out and embracing all kinds of ‘polytricks’ comes naturally to our politicos.