GenNext emerges, one state at a time

Hyderabad: Generation Next is taking its rightful apex place in Indian politics, state by state. With Charanjit Singh Channi taking over as Chief Minister of Punjab on Monday, yet another state has witnessed a changeover of leadership, marking a shift of power to the younger generation.

Earlier in the year, Karnataka, Uttarakhand, Gujarat and Assam (though not a generational change) saw new Chief Ministers taking over. In Tamil Nadu, after winning a hard-fought election, Stalin rose to the top. In Andhra Pradesh, with young Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy firmly in his seat, the Telugu Desam is slowly seeing a shift of leadership from the doyen N. Chandrababu Naidu to his son Nara Lokesh. In several states, from Yogi Adityanath in Uttar Pradesh to Uddhav Thackeray in Maharashtra, the leadership is in the hands of young leaders.

An uneasy eerie truce is allowing some Chief Ministers of the previous generation to continue —  Shivraj Singh Chauhan in Madhya Pradesh and Ashok Gehlot in Rajasthan — with the Scindia-Pilot rebellions against them, on behalf of the next generation, playing out with opposite twists.

Mamata Banerjee is at the peak of her career, winning a third term which may be her last —  and, depending on her prospects of a role at the Centre may hand over the baton even before the completion of her term. In Odisha too, while Naveen Patnaik, an outlier, firmly holds power and stature without a challenge or peer, his reign too would unlikely last forever.

The yearning of a younger generation trying to summit the game of thrones is playing out interestingly in Telangana state where the generation next — K.T. Rama Rao (TRS), A. Revanth Reddy (Congress) and Bandi Sanjay Kumar (BJP) — is locked in an intense confrontation of narratives at present, giving a strong indication that they all sense a generational change in the offing.

As such, incumbent and second-term Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao has created a firm place in history as a legend of Telugu politics, recording peerage of stature with the likes of N.T. Rama Rao, Chandrababu Naidu and Dr Y.S. Rajashekar Reddy. Though young by the standards of Indian politics, and fit and healthy, most observers believe in his case, a calling to play a bigger national role will create a vacuum in Telangana state and an inability to hold back on his ‘Delhi chalo’ spirit for another five years. It is this slot for which the game has become intense despite over two years to go for the next Assembly elections.

Rama Rao, minister and TRS working president, and the undeclared inheritor of the reins of both party and government, is the undisputed leader of the pack in the race for the chief ministership. He has built a great reputation as an organiser, charismatic mass leader and orator, besides being instrumental in securing a firm aura around Brand Hyderabad. It was his rallying of forces and working style that helped transform the TRS into a mean election winning force. Rama Rao proved his mettle when he braved a fierce attack of the BJP during the GHMC municipal elections and thwarted attempts of the saffron forces, largely because of his popularity with the large Andhra voter community.

Little wonder, he is leading the counter-attack against the shrillest challenge mounted yet to the TRS supremacy in seven years — simultaneously — both by the Congress and the BJP.

Sensing that the next round of confrontation would be fought where voters would essentially have to choose between Rama Rao and his rivals from the Congress and the BJP, Revanth Reddy, soon after taking charge as PCC chief, started attacking Rama Rao directly. It took shape as a nasty face-off on Twitter and extended to allegations of links to drugs to a mistaken claim over the arrest of a child rapist.

Revanth Reddy is working on galvanising the party cadre, hoping to cash in on the rising anti-TRS mood in the public and the existing though dormant organisational strength of the Congress, hoping the BJP would fail to build itself into a credible alternative between now and the next polls.

Little wonder, the Twitter challenge from Revanth to Rama Rao or his counter to invoke sedition charges against anyone criticising or abusing his father, feel like chief ministerial duels, not some side campaign barbs ahead of a bypoll.

Bandi Sanjay is leading his party's charge, buoyed by the support of Union home minister Amit Shah, the RSS and an increasingly larger part of his own till-late moribund state BJP. The BJP hopes that the Etala Rajendar episode will come in handy after some reversals in the MLC polls and Nagarjunasagar bypoll. Sanjay has been continuing the BJP's ideologically-loaded narrative of attacking the TRS indirectly, aiming their barbs at the MIM to create a Hindu-Muslim polarisation.

In many ways, Revanth Reddy and Sanjay are using their unrelenting campaigns to also consolidate their positions within the party — though neither the Congress nor the BJP is likely to name their CM candidate in the next two years. Sanjay faces a challenge from the formidable and strong G. Kishan Reddy, and others — with all decision on choosing a CM wresting finally with the Modi-Shah duo, while Revanth Reddy too will have to face heat from several seniors in the Congress.

Even Rama Rao knows he has to occasionally look behind his back, not because there is a challenger to his bid within the party but such is the game of politics.

But there is little doubt that the trio will mark most of the political battles on the ground for the next year or more before a clearer picture emerges. But Rama Rao, Revanth Reddy or Sanjay, the next generation is impatiently here, and won't wait for too long.