Gali Nagaraja

LOK-SABHA-ELECTION

Andhra: Delhi’s hand of friendship and poll arithmetic drives zero-chemistry Naidu-BJP alliance

Chandrababu Naidu needs BJP’s crutches to take on the imperious Jagan Mohan Reddy. Whatever votes BJP and Jana Sena can pull will help TDP in the assembly polls. But a smooth vote transfer may be difficult between the three allies. Moreover, BJP isn’t exactly popular in Andhra Pradesh because of inaction on the “special status” front

POLITICS

Brother vs Sister battle in Andhra Pradesh could end up benefiting Chandrababu Naidu

It is not the revival of Congress but a flight of malcontents within his own party towards sister YS Sharmila Reddy, who has an equal claim to the YSR legacy, that will worry Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy. Sharmila as a vote-cutter could help TDP as it goes about mopping anti-incumbency

POLITICS

Telangana: Will national parties dominate in 2024 polls and sideline the BRS?

After JD(S) in Karnataka, it is the turn of BRS to bite the dust. Cut to a Lok Sabha poll where regional parties have lesser skin in the game, it will be the two national parties BJP and Congress that will dominate voters’ mindspace

ASSEMBLY-ELECTIONS

Telangana: A crown of thorns awaits Revanth Reddy

Unlike other Congress leaders who were clueless on how to combat KCR’s popularity, Revanth Reddy boldly took to the streets and led from the front. Now begins another phase of struggle to give the seniors their pound of flesh, find financial resources to meet expensive Congress “guarantees”, and deliver Lok Sabha seats for the party

ASSEMBLY-ELECTIONS

Telangana Elections 2023: Anti-incumbency a factor but can Congress override KCR’s charisma?

Telangana Elections 2023: As campaigning ended, KCR upped his sentimental pitch to voters as the leader who fought most fiercely for statehood. Congress tried to pitch Indira Gandhi’s connect with Telangana despite four decades elapsing since her passing. Both BRS and Congress have an array of welfare schemes but anti-incumbency rubs some shine off BRS promises

ASSEMBLY-ELECTIONS

Telangana Elections 2023: Will KCR’s risky bet of tickets to nearly all his sitting MLAs pay off?

Telangana Elections 2023: If there is voter fatigue with sitting BRS MLAs, chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao’s move to renominate all but four of his sitting MLAs will backfire

ASSEMBLY-ELECTIONS

Telangana Elections 2023: BRS trips on north-south geographical and developmental divide 

Telangana Elections 2023: North Telangana from where most of the BRS bigwigs hail from has enjoyed the best of irrigation facilities and the bounty of the Godavari river. In contrast south Telangana has fallen behind as successive governments failed to find solutions to its developmental problems 

ASSEMBLY-ELECTIONS

Telangana Elections 2023: Failure to create adequate jobs troubles KCR

A young Dalit woman contesting as an Independent while foregrounding the issue of joblessness and what it does to the aspirations of the poor are getting attention in her constituency, across the Telugu-speaking states, and on social media. Are increasingly vocal youth disillusioned by the current growth paradigm a sign of where Telangana and Indian politics are headed to?

ASSEMBLY-ELECTIONS

Telangana Elections 2023: Can Congress capitalise on Owaisi no-show in his bastion against BJP leader Raja Singh? 

Telangana Elections 2023: BJP’s fiery leader T Raja Singh has won two elections on the trot from Hyderabad's Goshamahal seat, where the AIMIM is headquartered. AIMIM not fielding a candidate has come handy for Congress to allege a secret Owaisi-BJP pact, but it can equally be argued in Asaduddin Owaisi’s favour that he doesn’t want a split in Muslim votes

ASSEMBLY-ELECTIONS

Telangana Elections 2023: Can BJP’s pivot to an OBC CM checkmate BRS and Congress?

Telangana Elections 2023: The realisation that Hindutva isn’t fetching BJP sufficient electoral rewards in the state has forced the party to promise an OBC CM. This put BRS and Congress, whose top echelons are dominated by upper caste Velamas and Reddys respectively, on the mat

ASSEMBLY-ELECTIONS

Telangana Elections 2023: Will Modi's Dalit outreach help BJP?

Telangana Elections 2023: Madigas have long been demanding sub-categorisation of the SC quota claiming that the “forwards” among Dalits like Malas were cornering the benefits. With successive governments at the state and Centre failing them, PM Modi’s show of empathy to a community leader, despite inaction since 2014, projected all the right optics

ASSEMBLY-ELECTIONS

Telangana Elections 2023: KCR’s search for a backup safe seat lands him in another stiff contest

Telangana Elections 2023: With his Gajwel duel with BJP's Etela Rajender getting tough, chief minister KCR has ventured into Kamareddy only to draw another arch-rival, Congress state president Revanth Reddy, into the battle

ASSEMBLY-ELECTION

Telangana Elections 2023: Has KCR lost the Muslim support that he took for granted?

Telangana Elections 2023: Support from Muslims, buttressed further by staying on the right side of Asaduddin Owaisi, helped KCR in his reelection bid in 2018. But Muslims are no longer enthused with KCR, who despite ensuring communal peace, hasn’t delivered on other key promises like a 12% quota. Both KCR and Owaisi, worry that their common foe – Congress – is poised to benefit

ASSEMBLY-ELECTIONS

Telangana Elections 2023: KCR fighting from a second seat suggests all is not well in Gajwel

Telangana elections 2023: KCR’s decision to contest from Kamareddy may have followed the huge rumblings of discontent in Gajwel, a constituency he assiduously nurtured and which has gained much from having the CM as its MLA. To make matters worse for KCR, his sworn rival BJP’s Etela Rajender is making a strong pitch for community votes

ASSEMBLY-ELECTIONS

Telangana Elections 2023: A serial defector sums up BJP and Congress’s wildly fluctuating fortunes

Telangana Elections 2023: In 2022, when Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy defected to BJP from Congress, the saffron party was on a high in Telangana after a string of impressive wins. But he lost a bypoll, BJP lost momentum in the state, Congress regained its mojo after Karnataka, and lo, Reddy is coming back home

ASSEMBLY-ELECTIONS

Telangana Elections 2023: Former Naxals make a beeline for electoral politics   

From Congress’s Seethakka to BJP’s Etela Rajender, a host of former Naxals have found a happy hunting ground in Telangana’s electoral politics. It’s not really a surprise, given the state’s long tryst with left wing extremism and the dominance that the People’s War Group once enjoyed over vast swathes of North Telangana 

ASSEMBLY-ELECTIONS

Telangana Elections 2023: Between Congress and the November 30 polling day stands the BRS triumvirate of KCR, KTR and Harish Rao

Telangana Elections 2023: While BRS supremo K Chandrashekar Rao came up in politics the hard way and hasn’t let slip his grip over the party or the electorate, the gen-next comprising son KT Rama Rao and nephew T Harish Rao have consciously shunned shortcuts, transforming themselves by dint of hard work into leaders and administrators that the masses identify with

ASSEMBLY-ELECTIONS

Telangana Elections 2023: A jailed Chandrababu Naidu may do more damage to KCR than an actively campaigning Naidu

Telangana Elections 2023: The Kamma community to which Chandrababu Naidu belongs has been feeling marginalised in Telangana. With perceptions among them strong that Telangana CM K Chandrashekar Rao is aligned to Jagan Mohan Reddy’s alleged witch-hunt that has purportedly landed Naidu in jail, it could lead to a strong mobilisation against BRS in around 30 seats where the Kammas are influential

ASSEMBLY-ELECTIONS

Telangana: KCR dominates, but BJP ceding ground to Congress will reduce division of anti-incumbency votes

KCR’s pivotal role in the statehood movement and smartly packaged welfare schemes allows him to start off with a huge advantage. But Congress’s victory in Karnataka has had a cascading effect on its cadre morale in Telangana and eroded BJP’s claims of being the party that can beat KCR

ASSEMBLY-ELECTIONS

Congress’s Telangana worry: Too many Reddy leaders, too few from OBCs

The Telangana leadership of the Congress is crowded in by Reddys, and it worked against the entry of another big Reddy leader, YS Sharmila, the late YS Rajasekhara Reddy’s daughter. With over 50% of the state comprised of OBCs, the lack of a big OBC face is a gaping hole in Congress’s armour

INDIA

Andhra Pradesh: Chandrababu Naidu’s arrest could be a turning point before the 2024 assembly polls

Naidu’s arrest over an alleged scam, over four years after his tenure ended, has won the embattled TDP support from key opposition parties. Has the formidable Jagan Reddy made a political miscalculation or was he taking countermeasures in view of Naidu’s rallies attracting large crowds?

ASSEMBLY-ELECTIONS

Telangana: With five aspirants for the CM’s post, Congress battles a familiar old problem

The Telangana Congress is in quite a farcical situation. It is up against the formidable K Chandrashekar Rao and has just 5 MLAs in the 119 member assembly but its leaders are already dreaming of the party winning the upcoming elections and fancying their chances to become the Chief Minister

INDIA

Telangana: Will caste make a comeback after a decade of statehood sentiment?

Congress is stitching a Karnataka-like Ahinda coalition to its traditional Reddy bedrock. For nine years, KCR has triumphed over caste divides by tapping statehood sentiments. BJP’s difficult attempt to unite the scattered OBC vote and play up Hindutva is the third pole in the fight for a winning social coalition