During his visit to Jangoan and Suryapet districts on Sunday, he interacted with farmers, drawing a hysterical crowd proving once again that he is the modern pied piper of Telangana.
BRS chief KCR interacting with farmers in Telangana (X)
BRS supremo K Chandrasekhar Rao has sent out a message loud and clear to farmers who are reeling under the impact of the adverse seasonal conditions: The pink party may be down, but it is not out.
During his visit to Jangoan and Suryapet districts on Sunday, 31 March, he interacted with farmers as a hysterical crowd followed him, proving once again that he is the modern pied piper of Telangana.
Though he was no longer the chief minister, his visit to the fields made it seem as if he still held the position, going by the way the party workers surrounded him, competing and jostling with one another to be close to him as he moved forward.
After undergoing hip replacement surgery on 7 December last year following a fall in the restroom at his Erraville farmhouse, the same day A Revanth Reddy of Congress was sworn in as the chief minister, the 69-year-old Telangana strongman bounced back in style.
He made his first public appearance when he addressed a public meeting at Nalgonda on 13 February, where he nailed the Congress government for “surrendering” the state’s right on irrigation projects on Krishna River, mainly Nagarjuna Sagar, to the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB).
He then addressed an election rally in Karimnagar on 12 March, where he strongly criticised the Congress for the state government’s failure to save the crops, which had begun withering due to lack of water.
KCR also tore into the Congress for frequent interruptions in power supply and wondered whether the state contracted a disease immediately after the BRS demitted office.
The steady desertions from his party to Congress do not seem to have unnerved him. Even if they did, he did not betray any feelings.
In fact, he seems to have taken them by his stride. He called those who had left him jackals and dogs and that their exit would not make any difference to the party.
KCR, in his inimitable and peremptory style, established a connect with farmers. He spoke to them in their dialect which comes as second nature to him, helping him striking a chord with them instantly.
He went into the field and for a change, listened to the farmers as they narrated their woes to him.
Later speaking to media persons, KCR went into a combative mode, resurrecting the persona that he had assumed when he was leading the Telangana movement.
The surgical criticism of the Congress, which comes from his insight into agriculture and power sectors, was packed with facts and figures. It appeared as though his Congress rivals would have to do a lot of homework if they wanted to match him in wit, logic and facts.
The key take-away from his visit to Telangana villages, which came after a very long time and for the first time after losing power in the recent Assembly elections, was that there was ample scope for party to sprout green shoots even after the sledge-hammer blow it had received in the last Assembly elections.
He said that no one can write him off or the party as it lay spread across the state like a very vast ocean.
The former chief minister appeared keen on dismantling the narrative that was being painstakingly and assiduously built by the Congress that the BRS was over the hill and that it no longer was relevant to Telangana in the present context.
KCR carefully avoided making any political broadside against the government, disciplining himself to attacking it on farm sector issues that were crying for immediate attention.
KCR took full advantage of the adverse seasonal conditions prevailing in the state and used them as his firepower to target Revanth Reddy’s dispensation.
According to KCR, crops in 15 lakh acres had already dried up, which may be an exaggeration, and that the state government has remained a mute spectator to farmers’ unremitting agony.
He also took advantage of the late crediting of rythu bandhu money to the farmers and at one point castigated the government for its move to restrict rythu bandh only to middle and small farmers.
The main attack on the government was on the “shoddy” handling of the power sector, which is KCR’s USP anyway since he was closely associated with all the initiatives that were taken during his 10-year rule which included ensuring power supply to farm sector round the clock.
He seemed to have earned brownie points with farmers when he said that the present government was dragging its feet, even when it had to procure power at a higher price, especially when its most needed in the agriculture sector.
He recalled how he had, without any second thought, purchased power when it was needed most regardless of how expensive it was.
“To provide farmers enough power is the responsibility of the government. It is a priority. This is not an issue on which one should sit and excogitate whether the power that is available through exchanges was expensive or economic.
On serval occasions, he betrayed the seething rage that was building inside him while addressing the state government.
“We will not leave you. “We will chase you, hunt you and drag you into the roads. We will not sleep and would not let you sleep,” KCR was seen blurting out, overcome by anger apparently riled by the fact that the gaddi, which he had probably thought was permanent for him, had been yanked away.
For all one could make out, he appeared as though he considered himself the chief minister of the state even now, going by his demeanour, the diction of his voice and the peremptory nature of his warnings, which he used to hand out to BJP in the past.
It is quite possible that it is an act that he had put on to lift the sagging morale of the workers and farmers, but he had done a very good job. The party workers seemed to have once again thought that the game was not over and that it had only begun.
Building this narrative was important for the BRS after the exit of a battery of leaders.
The recent departures included SC leader and MLA Kadiyam Srihari, his doctor-daughter Kavya, party secretary-general and Rajya Sabha member K Keshva Rao and his Hyderabad Mayor-daughter Gadwal Vijayalaxmi, and many more leaders who are getting ready with their backpacks.
Though KCR’s son and former minister KT Rama Rao had been trying to lift the spirits of the the workers, KCR’s effort was classy in nature as it was directed at the large constituency of farmers without whose help no party can survive.
The surgical precision with which he had attempted to demolish the Congress narrative must have made the party leaders and workers think twice before veering to the conclusion that the party was on a downhill journey.
(Edited by Shauqueen Mizaj)
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