KCR stern rebuke on KTR-as-CM issue stuns party leaders

Hyderabad: The outburst of TRS chief and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao at the party’s state executive meeting on Sunday has left ministers, MPs, MLAs and MLCs, and other senior leaders in utter confusion.

Chandrashekar Rao had issued a strong warning to ministers and MLAs, who had openly sought the elevation of K.T. Rama Rao as CM. It is now being hotly debated in TRS circles. Mr Rao admonished leaders making such demands so sternly that he was unequivocal about throwing them out of the party if they continued to talk about changing the CM.

Ministers and MLAs wonder why they were not directed earlier not to air their views on the CM change issue all along, even though they were at it for the past two months. They wonder why Mr Rama Rao too, kept silent when they talked about ‘KTR as CM’, including in his presence at public meetings.

Ministers, MLAs and other leaders, in their internal discussions, are reported to be confessing that they had almost competed with each other in batting for change, when they felt they were “lagging behind others” in emerging as the strongest and most vocal supporters of KTR as CM.

They felt “safe” in making such demands after they were assured there was no objection from the party high command (KCR and KCR), despite talking about it repeatedly.

“Everyone in the party felt there was tacit high command approval to sing the ‘KTR as CM’ chorus since there was complete silence from party bosses. By talking so, ministers hoped their berths in the new cabinet will be safe, once he assumed the CM chair, while MLAs aspiring for berths hoped to catch KTR’s attention. Party bosses should have warned us against speaking about the CM change issue at the start if they had objections or reservations,” said a legislator.

“After allowing us for two or three months, we fail to understand the sudden outburst by the CM on this issue,” a senior party leader confessed.

An argument doing rounds in TRS circles is that CM Rao had in fact made up his mind to make his son the CM but has backtracked now due to “unfavourable political conditions” for TRS in Telangana, because of a resurgent BJP, after the Dubbak and GHMC polls, seemingly steamrolling across the state.

Moreover, there was no scope left for senior Rao to play any active role in national politics at this point of time, if he quits the CM post now. They feel Chandrashekar Rao may make his next moves on national politics and elevate his son as CM based on the outcome of West Bengal and Tamil Nadu Assembly polls scheduled in April-May.

Besides politics, the challenging financial conditions of the state at this juncture due to corona pandemic have also forced Mr Rao to withhold his son’s elevation as CM because Rama Rao would not be able to deliver anything major or fulfil most aspirations of the people, due to severe fund crunch.