Fresh political battles keep TRS, BJP busy

Post Huzurabad by elections, high political drama is being witnessed in Telangana. The State government is playing all the cards up its sleeve to prove that the Centre is responsible for everything. It wants to give an impression that Centre does not know how to govern the country.

The party and the government does not get tired of claiming that as a 'responsible government,' they have been doing their best to see that the Centre resolves various issues like purchase of paddy, sharing of Godavari and Krishna waters with neighbouring Andhra Pradesh or fulfilling the assurances given in the AP State Re-organisations Act. 2014.

First it triggered a controversy saying that farmers should not go in for paddy crop during rabi. Reason is Centre was not willing to buy paddy anymore. When the opposition parties made it an issue during by by-poll and the results went against the TRS, it took up cudgels against the Centre saying that it should buy entire Kharif crop.

The Chief Minister in a surprising move held press conferences on two consecutive days and charged that the Centre was discriminating between Punjab and Telangana. He said while the government was buying entire produce in Punjab both during Kharif and Rabi, it was refusing to do so in Telangana and finally took to dharnas. Another point he made to buttress his argument regarding discrimination by Centre was that it did not allocate medical colleges to Telangana.

TRS launched a blitzkrieg against the Centre and the BJP leadership for refusing to procure paddy and accused it of selling all PSUs and alleged that it was not following the principles of federalism and was even taking over the river management and irrigation projects. CM questioned the wisdom of the central government to privatise public sector undertakings like LIC.

It held the BJP government at Centre responsible for seven years of delay in constituting a tribunal to decide on water allocation from Krishna and Godavari. The Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao even made certain comments pertaining to border issues.

"While we call it 'Jai Kisan the Centre says Nai Kisan' and is duping the farmers in the country," Industry Minister K T Rama Rao has been saying during his speeches from different platforms. The Centre according to him was doing all this as it was suffering from intellectual bankruptcy and all its policies failed to take the country forward.

KTR said India occupies 102nd position in world hunger index which is far behind Nepal, Bangladesh and Bhutan. They could not even come up with a proper insurance scheme for the farmer while Telangana gives Rs 10,000 per acre to each farmer through Rythu Bandhu, Rs 5 lakhs insurance through Rythu Bhima and irrigated lakhs of acres to barren lands by constructing Kaleshwaram project, the minister said.

One MLA Rasamayi Balakishan went to the extent saying that Prime Minister Narendra Modi who eats wheat does not know what agriculture is. This is something akin to the kind of statements Kangana Ranaut made regarding India's Independence.

All this makes one wonder whether the political parties feel that people are still in 16th or 17th century and do not understand what is correct and what is wrong and would blindly believe what the politicians say.

We are not giving a clean certificate to BJP performance either. But then what is lacking in the Indian political system is the guts to call a spade a spade. Initially it was thought that all this 'Tu Tu Mein Mein' was nothing but shadow boxing between the pink party and the saffron party.

But now the air is getting cleared. The fight is serious. While the Union Home Minister Amit Shah is likely to devote some time on the issues pertaining to the allegations made by Telangana during the Southern Zonal Council meeting at Tirupati, other ministers like Railways, Health, Agriculture, Textile, IT and Industry ministries will soon take turns to rebut the allegations of the state government. As far as non-sanctioning of medical colleges are concerned, the Centre claims that the state did not apply and did not agree to the clause of cost sharing of 60:40.

The recent meeting of the State executive of the BJP was told that they should go ahead and evolve all necessary strategies to make deep inroads right into the rural areas of Telangana so that they can make a mark in the next general elections by countering the TRS based on the official rebuttal of the central ministers on various issues raised by the state government. "Coming to power" should be the goal and there is no looking back on it, they were reportedly told.

While the TRS through its social media has taken up the slogan campaign "Kontava Konava" (will you buy or not), the BJP social media is countering this by saying "Vadlu konam, MLAs ni Kontamu." Whether it is proper to say that they will buy MLAs is ethically right or wrong is a different issue, but this clearly indicates the intentions of the saffron party. 'Weaken the opponents.' Something which they had done in Andhra Pradesh in the last general elections. Create a situation where the ruling party goes into a state of panic and then strike them.

But why did TRS choose this strategy? Did it underestimate the BJP? Did it feel that this would help the government in diverting the issues? No all this was well thought game plan if political analysts are to be believed.

The TRS which wanted to establish its upper hand and prove that it was the party that is important not candidates by winning Huzurabad by polls had failed in its attempt. It felt that if it does not go aggressive against Centre, it could lead to Eatala Rajender emerge more stronger and it may help the BJP to make inroads faster into the strongholds of TRS.

If the State goes hammer and tongs against the Centre, the reactions would be coming from Centre and State president and other leaders and Eatala will not get a chance to play bigger role. It appears to be 'Contain Eatala mission.' What would be the final outcome of this political game of one upmanship is something that needs to be closely watched.

All eyes now would be set on the kind of role the TRS would play in Parliament during the ensuing winter session which would begin from November 29. How effectively, they will take on the centre and achieve their targets would be interesting from political point of view.

One thing is certain, Telangana is poised for many twists and turns politically in the days to come. The only sad part is that the Congress is still far behind in the political battle. One of the main reasons is that majority of its cadre has switched over either to TRS or the BJP during the last seven years. Even to date there is no proper coordination between the top leaders. It continues to be a divided house.