HYDERABAD: The Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) is sitting pretty as the principal Opposition Congress, and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which has been claiming to be the real alternative to the ruling party in 2023 Assembly elections, or whenever the next polls are held, are pursuing only part time politics.
The political activity in the state picked up earlier than usual thanks to the Huzurabad bypoll but the two Opposition parties, in particular the BJP, did not make much progress thereafter on organisational strengthening, which is vital for any political party to aim for power.
The political hibernation of the Opposition, indeed, is a music to the ears of the ruling party which otherwise is worried over the onset of anti-incumbency factor across the state as was reflected in a recent sample survey that began in eight Assembly constituencies in four corners of the state by a reputed pollster.
The BJP seems to be keener on engineering defections at the eleventh hour and hop to the seat of power by forcing another bypoll in the meantime, rumoured to be Munugode represented by the Congress incumbent Komatireddy Raj Gopal Reddy. On the other hand, the Pradesh Congress Committee chief A. Revanth Reddy is accused by his own party men of keeping himself busy with individual shows of strength or press briefings targeting individuals or corporates.
“When the state is burning on the critical issue of paddy procurement, our leader targets Venkata Rami Reddy, former Siddipet collector who went on to become a ruling party MLC. Earlier, there was a tall talk against Kokapet land auctions but no follow up,” a senior Congress leader pointed out.
Despite the high command directing him to take all the senior leaders along with him, the gap still persists, he said and cautioned against the warring seniors in the party encouraging multiple leaderships with a promise of Assembly ticket may boomerang.
The BJP state leadership too suffered a severe loss of face recently, for what the Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao described as instigating farmers to grow paddy in the next rabi season.
When the Chief Minister, anticipating agrarian crisis, gave the first call to farmers not to grow paddy in the 2022 rabi, the BJP or the Centre were not on his target list. But, state BJP chief Bandi Sanjay’s call to farmers to grow paddy only came in handy to the Chief Minister to turn tables on the rival. With the central leadership too making it clear against paddy in the next rabi, the state leaders had to duck under the state’s delay in procuring the kharif paddy.
Meanwhile, sources in the government told this newspaper that indications were given to officials about the possible bypoll early 2022 in Munugode and on the need to expedite the developmental activities besides identifying the stress areas.
On the macro level, top officials steering the administration have been busy strategising on taking the success stories of massive development and social initiatives of the government to people besides taking up mid course corrections on war footing, for instance, making Dharani more user friendly.
