Opinion | By opting for early assembly polls, Telangana’s KCR has played his hand wisely

Ramakrishna Upadhya

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, KCR as he is popularly known, may have trumped both the Congress and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) by recommending the dissolution of the state assembly and paving the way for elections nine months ahead of schedule.

To understand why KCR chose to dissolve the assembly, it is important to look at the politics at state level. Even as the Congress and the TDP were working on a tacit understanding to unseat KCR’s Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government in the elections due in April 2019, the CM sprang a surprise on them by opting for early polls.

KCR, who with 82 MLAs has a comfortable majority in the 119-member House, hopes that the election commission will club the Telangana assembly elections with those of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh due in November-December.

KCR is counting on the work he has done in Telangana and also on the image he has created for himself in the state and at the national level.

A perception has grown that KCR has done much better as a chief minister than the more-experienced Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu. Even after getting generous funds from the Centre, while Naidu walked out of the NDA over Andhra Pradesh not being granted a ‘special status’, KCR quietly leveraged Hyderabad’s resources to win over the people of Telangana.

KCR, assisted by his son, KT Rama Rao, who is also the IT, industries and urban development minister, has firmly put Telangana on a high-growth path by developing the state’s infrastructure, irrigation and power sectors. In about four years, from deficit, Telangana has turned into power surplus state, even offering its farmers uninterrupted power supply.

Apart from initiating a number of populist schemes, KCR has turned farmer-friendly by starting India’s first farmer investment support scheme — the Rythu Bandhu is a direct cash benefit scheme that covers about 5.8 million farmers. He also takes pride for ensuring peace and harmony in the state.

At the national level, KCR briefly flirted with the idea of floating a non-BJP, non-Congress federal front. However, he may have now reconciled to join hands with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) after the 2019 Lok Sabha polls to maximise benefits for his state.

Despite occasional sparring with BJP chief Amit Shah, KCR has maintained good equations with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Though he is not part of the NDA, KCR has supported the Centre’s moves such as demonetisation and the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST). KCR also supported the BJP’s candidates for the posts of president and vice-president. This is in contrast to Naidu, who was until recently a part of the NDA government.

Given this, why did KCR choose to go for early assembly polls? There could be three possible reasons why he opted to do so.

First, KCR is slightly unnerved with the prospect of the powerful Reddys and the Kammas in the Congress and the TDP joining hands to recapture power in Telangana, as he himself belongs to the former princely community of Velamas, who form a small minority. He reckoned that though Naidu would be fighting the Congress in Andhra Pradesh, a secret Congress-TDP pact could reap electoral dividends in Telangana.

Second, with the Modi government facing likely backlash across India, KCR wanted to de-couple state elections (in 2014, both Lok Sabha and assembly polls were held together) from the Lok Sabha polls and turn the focus entirely on him and the performance of his government.

Third, after consolidating his position in the state, KCR could focus on the 17 Lok Sabha seats from the state. If the TRS does well in the general elections, KCR could even play kingmaker at the Centre in the event of the BJP falling short of majority.

Thus, by opting for early polls and being prepared to lose nine months, KCR may have played his hand wisely.

The author is a senior journalist. Views expressed are personal