TDP Influence Clouds Telangana Elections After Grand Alliance

Kommineni Srinivasa Rao

The coming together of Rahul Gandhi's Congress and Chandrababu Naidu's Telugu Desam will have a sensational impact on Telangana politics, especially in view of the fact that the two parties had been bitterly opposed to each other for more than three decades. Moreover, these two political entities represented two major communities in the Telugu states.

Caste has played a dominant factor in elections and it cannot be overstated. However, it must be said that conditions have changed over the last two decades after the bifurcation of the state, politics in Telangana underwent a major transformation. The Telangana movement for statehood with KCR as its clear spearhead, his oratory and election promises, all these factors propelled the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) to victory in 2014.

It was also stated at that time that the Congress party had moved away from the Reddy community which caused it immense losses. No matter what the underlying reason, the Congress faced defeat at the hustings in 2014 after which Uttam Kumar Reddy became the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) President. An interesting fact which is emerged out of the 2014 elections is that while 20 Reddy candidates won on a TRS ticket, only 13 emerged victorious on a Congress ticket. This itself is an indicator of the influence of the community in Telangana. This follows a pattern established over previous elections. However, in the context of the Telangana movement, one must say that the impression one gained was that the elections were relatively free of caste colors.

After KCR rode to power in 2014, it appears that there had been sustained attempts to bring the Reddy community together on one platform. One particular TV channel in its discussion seem to have tried to drive home this aspect.

The buzz also had it that KCR was out to woo the Kamma community which is traditionally aligned with the TDP, to counter the Reddy affinity to the Congress. However, these rumours did not come true. Revanth Reddy joined the Congress and the Congress-TDP ties have cemented further after his entry.

This gives rise to the suspicion whether thes two communities would come together in a big way. It must be said that Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu's alliance with Congress has come as a jolt to the Reddy community but has also led to questions of longevity of this new-found love for each other.

Though the TDP is a weakened political force in Telangana, because Chandrababu Naidu is in power in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, and has the capacity to leverage his business interests to influence the Congress party, it is being said that he has come up with a strategy to strike an alliance with the grand old party. This may not change the socio-economic conditions in the state.

Many Congressmen too are finding this difficult to digest. It is being said that there is a sense of fear which has gripped Congressmen in Telangana owing to this alliance. Another question being asked is whether hard-boiled TDP followers would support the Congress. Yet another factor being discussed is that AP politics would cast its long shadow on Telangana.

The YSRCP and Jana Sena are strong political adversaries of the TDP in AP. This has led to speculation that many sections of society including Reddy community are reconsidering their avowed hostility to KCR. Some also recall the manner in which Chandrababu had kept them at arms length in his time.

The Congress-TDP alliance has created a fair amount of confusion inspite of the opposition between TRS and Congress. Then again, there are people who believe that TDP has its voter base in and around Hyderabad and that Chandrababu Naidu would pitch in with his money bags for elections.

Many prominent Telangana Congress leaders are clearly opposed to this pact, but since Chandrababu could get the nod directly from Rahul Gandhi, they have no say in the matter. They feel that the High Command has foisted its decision upon them, while the Telangana TDP leaders tend to feel that they might pull off victory in a few seats on account of this alliance. How the votes would get split between the two parties remains to be seen.

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