New Delhi: The Congress leadership believes Telangana chief minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao plans to force early elections on the state because of his alleged secret agenda of aligning with the BJP in the parliamentary polls next year.
The Congress high command has been seeing Rao as a closet BJP ally for quite some time and many leaders have privately expressed dismay at Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee's attempts to sew up a secular front with him. They hope the political scenario is getting clearer now, leaving lesser confusion about the hidden agendas of some parties.
Telangana Congress chief Uttam Kumar Reddy shed all ambiguity to describe Rao as a "despotic and corrupt" leader who is a puppet of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Central leaders aren't so forthright but predict a BJP-TRS alliance in the parliamentary elections.
A Congress leader said: "The state and parliamentary polls were delinked only because KCR wanted to secure Muslim votes for the TRS before he unveils his pact with Modi."
Muslims constitute over 12 per cent of voters in Telangana and has high concentration in some districts, including capital Hyderabad. Although the TRS is in alliance with the Asaduddin Owaisi-led All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), an open understanding with the BJP could have disturbed this relationship, compelling Muslims to drift towards the Congress.
The AIMIM currently has seven Assembly seats, thanks to its complete sway over Muslim voters in the old city of Hyderabad. Although the Congress sees even Owaisi with suspicion, accusing him of nurturing a tacit understanding with the BJP, he will have problems in supporting the TRS if it openly goes with the BJP.
The AIMIM-TRS understanding whittled down the Congress support base, but Rao is worried because of a possible tie-up of the national party with the Telugu Desam Party. The TRS also wants to wrap up the Assembly elections before the ill-prepared Congress gets a booster dose in case of encouraging results in the Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh elections.
The Congress has constituted its district committees and booth committees, but the absence of charismatic pan-Telangana leaders has prevented it from emerging as an alternative. The dominant view is that state Congress chief Uttam Kumar Reddy, a former bureaucrat, lacks political wisdom and drive to lead the party successfully while other leaders have small pockets of influence.
What is worse, a senior leader said, "many of our leaders have been in touch with KCR (Rao) over the past three-four years and they cannot be trusted to fight him with sincerity".
Some important Congress leaders are alleged to be on Rao's payroll and may even switch sides before the elections. The party has failed to build any agitation against the state government in the past four years.
The sudden development also comes as an additional burden for the Congress, which was planning to pour all its resources and energies into Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.
Now Congress president Rahul Gandhi will have to divert his attention to Telangana too as the party hopes to salvage some space here as it had the decisive role in the creation of the state. While the people of Andhra Pradesh have not forgiven the Congress for the division, Telangana can offer a significant number of Lok Sabha seats to the party if it does well in the Assembly elections.
