If both parties lose traction with the people if the latter suspects their day-to-day fighting is only a charade for preparing the ground to grab power in the next elections, there is a danger of the BJP making inroads into the vote banks of the Congress. It has already cut into the BRS vote bank in the Lok Sabha elections.
Published Jan 14, 2025 | 10:56 AM ⚊ Updated Jan 14, 2025 | 2:38 PM
KTR and Revanth Reddy. (File pictures)
The see-saw political battle between the ruling Congress and the Opposition BRS to discredit each other is in full swing in Telangana.
Lately, the BRS appears to be very aggressive in getting Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy’s jugular on almost all issues. At the same time, Congress seems to have adopted its own strategy and is moving forward in lowering the image of the KCR family.
Ever since the Congress came to power, the BRS which had never expected that it would lose power to A Revanth Reddy, has been unable to recover from the shock. The BRS cadres and leaders would have taken the defeat in the elections by their stride had anyone other than Revanth Reddy become the chief minister.
However, the very sight of Revanth Reddy wielding power as the chief minister of the state has become unbearable for the BRS. The party cadres lose no opportunity in trying to make fun of Revanth Reddy or make a visceral dissection of his policies, initiatives or decisions. The BRS leaders are pouncing on Congress even at the drop of a hat.
Even though party supremo K Chandrasekhar Rao is still on sabbatical, former minister KT Rama Rao and T Harish Rao have been carrying out a high-octane campaign against Revanth Reddy and the Congress.
After the recent attack on the BRS office in Bhuvanagiri by Congress activists, Harish Rao even demanded the President’s rule in the state as there could be no better way to stem the slide in law and order.
“Let the centre impose the President’s rule. The chief minister, who keeps home portfolio with him, does not say do anything even though law and order are going for a toss in the state,” he said, in an uncompromising and truculent voice.
It is all too clear that the BRS has become very vocal and is launching blitzkrieg attacks on Congress. For instance, look at how Huzurabad BRS MLA Padi Kaushik Reddy exploded in anger at an official meeting in Karimnagar on Sunday, 12 January.
The provocation was the presence of Jagtial MLA Dr Sanjay Kumar on the dais. He could not bear his sight as he recently joined the Congress after winning the Assembly election on the BRS ticket. He dared Dr Sanjay to resign and contest on a Congress ticket. “If you do, I will ensure that you will bite the dust,” he said even as his colleagues were taking him out of the venue of the meeting.
Kaushik Reddy let off a torrent of invective against Dr Sanjay for switching loyalty and demanded that he should make it clear which party he was representing. It came as a surprise since there was no provocation for the BRS leader to go into an offensive in the presence of ministers at the meeting. Kaushik Reddy, Sanjay, and their supporters almost came to blows.
Both the groups fought with each other, using expletives in the name of ensuring justice for the farmers who were waiting for agriculture investment subsidy Rythu Bharosa, whose payment is set to begin on Republic Day. They appeared more keen on settling their political scores rather than doing something for the farmers.
In retaliation, the Congress had Kaushik Reddy arrested on Monday, 13 January, for his high-handed behaviour on the basis of Dr Sanjay’s PA’s complaint of assault.
BRS Working President KT Rama Rao (KTR) came down on Revanth Reddy for the arrest and said that it was a desperate attempt to cover up his ineptitude as the chief minister.
In fact, the BRS leaders exploited the reduction in the reduction of Rythu Bharosa amount to ₹12,000 from the promised ₹15,000 per year per acre. They went for Revanth Reddy’s guts for garters. They claimed that lying and betrayal of people’s trust were Congress’ second nature.
They recalled the BRS days when former chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) used to pay Rythu Bandhu regularly at the rate of ₹10,000 per year and how the Congress played hide-and-seek for one full year before it came out with the announcement of Rythu Bharosa, that too ₹3,000 less than what was promised.
The BRS also fully exploited the recent incidents of school students lining up to welcome Revanth Reddy’s brother Tirupati Reddy in Vikarabad and the Medak Congress leaders using street children to celebrate the birthday of former MLA Mymnampally Hanumanth Rao in a metro train.
BRS leaders were on social media calling the state government and Revanth Reddy to account for how his brother acted as an extra-constitutional authority since he did not hold any official position.
The BRS has not been leaving Congress on any issue and on any decision that the state government is coming out with. The party supported actor Allu Arjun when the Congress government arrested him, and questioned how the police could arrest a national award winner for a crime that he was not directly related (stampede at Sandhya Theatre in Hyderabad during the premier of Allu Arjun’s starrer Pusha: The Rule).
It later made fun of Revanth Reddy that nobody knows who he is and that was why Allu Arjun had stumbled while recalling his name at the pre-release function of the film.
While this is so, the ruling Congress suffers from the handicap of no articulate leader who can call the BRS’ bluffs.
Even those who could, are remaining silent. In the entire Congress, it is Revanth Reddy who has to defend himself and then repel the BRS’ attacks. He used to do it at least once a week or once in three to four days but even that has come down.
Whenever Revanth Reddy goes on the offensive, the words he chooses to deride the KCR family always draw flak. He has the disadvantage of being called to account if he uses derogatory language as he holds the highest office of the chief minister in the state while the Opposition could get away with using such words since it is not the ruling party.
The BRS contends that it is using abusive words because it is Revanth Reddy who has started it while the Congress leaders claim that the use of such words began with the BRS. There is no end to this debate.
What appears to be the Congress strategy is to do what a party in power could; use the state agencies to settle political scores. Even though a number of inquiries had been ordered in the past into the “misdeeds” of the previous BRS government, they are in varying stages of progress, tying the hands of the government to proceed further on them.
The only issue that the Congress has exploited fully is the Formula E race case which Revanth Reddy is using to break the nerve of the BRS cadres.
In fact, the BRS had never been the same again after it lost the Assembly elections in November-December, 2023. The gravy train which KTR was riding shot-gun with his father KCR ground to a halt and on top of it trying times had begun for the KCR’s family and the BRS party.
On the face of it, the Formula E Race appears to be not much but Revanth Reddy is still using it to cause inconvenience to KTR who described it as a “lotta peesu” meaning frivolous, as so far the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) does not seem to have established the corruption angle.
As misfortunes never come alone, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is also breathing down on KTR’s neck in the case. It has already registered an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) on 20 December.
What makes the situation difficult for KTR in this case is the ED booking him on charges under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA). The onus of proving not guilty lies on KTR which means he would have to do his homework thoroughly.
To say that Revanth Reddy is determined to create problems for KTR and the BRS is a no-brainer. It is clear from the meticulous way he has moved in ordering the investigation of KTR’s role in the Formula E Race case.
He obtained the Governor’s consent for KTR’s prosecution to preclude the kind of problem that the Andhra Pradesh Crime Investigation Department (CID) had faced while proceeding legally against TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu in the skill development corporation scam when he was in the Opposition in 2023.
However, if the ACB does not establish the corruption angle in the case, it might become beneficial for KTR as it would surely kick up a wave of sympathy for him. It would paint Revanth Reddy as one who is after KTR to settle his political scores even though the case had no merit.
This could do a lot of damage to Congress since the stock of the BRS would go up steeply if KTR comes out of the case unscathed as he has been claiming.
Already BRS is having Revanth Reddy over a barrel for not keeping the six guarantees the Congress had promised to the people. The delay of one full year in paying Rythu Bharosa, the reduction in the promised amount and the long delay in waiving crop loans of up to ₹2 lakh, even after excluding the rich and well-to-do farmers, are already taken up by the BRS.
It is already making an issue of the silence of the Congress government on the payment of the Rythu Bharosa to tenant farmers which the party had promised at the time of the Assembly elections.
Sometimes, Congress’s fortunes are up because it is slowly implementing the guarantees. Even though not on a scale promised, Congress has a valid argument that welfare schemes are being extended to the needy and not to all and sundry which might keep the party in good stead in the political arena.
As far as Rythu Bharosa is concerned, it is saying it was paying more than what the BRS had paid in the past which may also work in its favour. Also, the BRS seems to be scoring brownie points with the people following its spirited and trenchant attack on Congress on various issues.
If both parties lose traction with the people if the latter suspects their day-to-day fighting is only a charade for preparing the ground to grab power in the next elections, there is a danger of the BJP making inroads into the vote banks of the Congress. It has already cut into the BRS vote bank in the Lok Sabha elections.
(Edited by Muhammed Fazil.)
