Jan 2, 2009
Floating TRS after giving up the deputy-speaker’s post in the Assembly, KCR aligned with the Congress party in the 2004 Assembly polls. He then agreed to setting up of a second State Reorganisation Commission (SRC) and joined UPA government which mentioned Telangana issue in its common minimum programme.
Mr Rao relied on lobbying for the next few years rejecting any middle-ground and said he would settle nothing short of Telangana State. He refused to take up issues like GO 610, which promises jobs to locals and threw his lot on political lobbying as a measure to secure his goal.
His occasional claims of having secured assurances from UPA Chairperson Ms Sonia Gandhi on Statehood made him a laughing stock, as she never openly seconded or denied them. He would go gaga and eulogise Sonia claiming the delivery of Statehood was imminent after his trips to
Repeated assertions of the late CM YSR pooh-poohing all the claims of KCR smoked him out of the government, with his credibility being called into question. He took to a farcical one-day fast at Jantar-Mantar which neither helped the cause nor resurrected his sagging image.
His repeated reliance on the electoral gains of his party's candidates at the State and Centre as a benchmark for his party's cause lost steam. The vigour and vitality, the hallmark of any party whose moorings lie in a single point agenda were lost, and so did the political fortunes of his party as he failed to kindle the movement even as it lost its fizz.
Having failed to get any assurance on statehood for the region, KCR then latched on to the Telugu Desam party which until then stood for an united Andhra and went to the polls projecting the then CM YSR as a stumbling block for the avowed goal of his party. The alliance proved to be an un-doing for the party as it was perceived opportunistic and received severe drubbing in the 2009 polls.
Many a TRS legislator lost the polls with even KCR scraping through with a wafer-thin majority of 15,000 votes, a sharp fall from the 2,20,000 majority he secured earlier. Mr KCR had to face repeated dissidence within the party with his detractors deriding him of insincerity. The credit of keeping the party afloat despite many a reverses goes to him and has remained the icon of the agitation.
A person who has not lost an election in his entire political career until now, has taken up to the path of agitation to achieve his goal now, which has paid him rich dividends as made him a force to reckon with. The ham handed and strong-arm tactics approach of the Centre to the peaceful agitation taken up by him have brought many sections of the people students, workers, government employees into the agitation.
After the death of YSR things changed for good for TRS and KCR undertook fast-unto-death for the Statehood and the Centre hurriedly announced that it would begin the process of Telangana statehood.
The Centre’s announcement has sparked a riot of protests across the coastal Andhra and Rayalseema with peoples’ representatives putting in their papers and few leaders going on indefinite fast triggering violence and constitutional crisis as the assembly was in session.
The Centre issued a fresh statement saying that there was no consensus and it again triggered violence in Telangana region.
KCR was also successful in bringing all political parties together forming a Joint Action Committee (JAC). TDP at the last moment went back and said it will wage its own war.
However, KCR, who started the year with a low rating as he lost winning margins in every successive election he fought, became a force to reckon with at year-end.
No comments:
Post a Comment