The three main parties — BRS, Congress, and BJP — used all means, fair and foul, to influence the voters.
KTR on the campaign trail.
The cacophony of electioneering for the Telangana Assembly elections scheduled on 30 November ended at 5 pm in 106 Assembly constituencies — and an hour early in 13 interior segments — on Tuesday, 28 November.
The three main political parties — the BRS, Congress and the BJP — pulled out all stops to influence the voters.
They used every trick in the book, regardless of whether they were fair or foul. They seemingly did not care whether they were purveying information or disinformation or misinformation, as long as they could get the voters on their side.
The BRS, hell-bent on retaining power, having tasted it for the last 10 years, carried out a particularly high-voltage campaign. And the Congress was seen spiritedly seeking electoral redemption after 10 years of exile.
The BJP, which made menacing noises, appeared more keen on improving its vote percentage so that it could build on it for the Lok Sabha election next year, which, for the saffron party, is more important than the Assembly polls in Telangana.
The people of the state were witness to the clash of political heavyweights.
Seen batting for the BJP were Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, party president JP Nadda, chief ministers of BJP-ruled stateas, and several Union ministers. For the Congress, traversing the state were Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, and a host of other leaders.
Though KCR bore most of the weight of the BRS campaigning, his son and minister KT Rama Rao also chipped in, chatting up with students, IT employees, riding on the Hyderabad Metro, tasting snacks at popular eateries, and also making forays into the Telangana hinterland to deliver power-packed speeches at election rallies.
On Tuesday, BJP leaders and Union ministers, including Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, Bhagwat Kharad, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis campaigned in different parts of Telangana, while Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde also tried to shore up the prospects of the BJP candidates.
Meanwhile, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi focused on Hyderabad, addressing meetings in Jubilee Hills, Nampally, and Malkajgiri.
As there was no emotive issue to exploit in this election, like the Telangana sentiment in the last two Assembly polls after the creation of state, the BRS relied heavily on attacking the Congress, holding it responsible for the 58 years of suffering, poverty, and squalor of the Telangana region.
It also kept reeling off its welfare measure to the point of boring the audience to exhaustion.
The Congress tried, but failed, to get traction for its campaign that Telangana was gifted by Sonia Gandhi, and was exploited by KCR and his family to amass personal wealth. The people appeared tired of listening to the anti-KCR rant which has been going on for the last 10 years.
The BJP switched over to furthering its communal agenda of targeting the AIMIM and exposing what it sees as a clandestine understanding between the two — the BRS and the AIMIM.
The Congress also used the Indira card, referring to the days of the late prime minister Indira Gandhi to strike a chord with tribal and Scheduled Caste (SC) communities.
Meanwhile, Modi attended a Madiga meeting where he promised his help for the sub-categorisation of SCs, apparently to consolidate the Madiga vote in the BJP’s favour. The prime minister consoling a weeping Madiga leader would perhaps remain an enduing image from the campaign.
Soon after the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced the schedule for the election on 9 October, the state witnessed massive campaigns by all the parties as though floodgates were lifted.
The heat kept increasing after 3 November, when the notification came, setting into motion the electoral process for the elections.
In fact, even before 9 October, there was a surcharged atmosphere in the state with leaders of all parties flexing their muscles like gladiators in the ring. The AIMIM, the Left parties, and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) added to the roar of the leading parties in pushing up the decibel levels.
The leaders of the three parties kept conducting road shows, resurrecting the smiles on their faces, waving at the crowd with affectionate mannerisms and sometimes sporting fancy caps, just like Modi did on Monday in his road show from RTC X roads to Kacheguda Chowrasta in Hyderabad. As the party admirers dropped petals on him like confetti, Modi returned the gesture and threw handfuls of petals at them.
The entire state appeared like a battleground, with attacks both physical and verbal taking place all the time.
The knife attack on the BRS candidate of Dubbaka, Kotha Prabhakar Reddy, a disconcerting symptom of a deeper malaise in the body politic, shook the conscience of those who had faith in democratic values.
The attack that took place while he was campaigning added a new dimension with BRS chief KCR warning the Congress, and holding it responsible for the assault.
KCR even asked the party workers to carry knives and rise like dust. His appeal even drew censure from the ECI, which asked him to refrain from using intemperate language.
The current Assembly elections would go down in history as a testament to the politics descending to despicable depths of depravity.
The language used by them against the rivals would make even the hardened squirm. Even the chief minister was no exception when he described Revanth Reddy as one who did time, eating jail food served to the prisoners in cups.
Not to be outdone, Revanth hit back saying that KCR was a land-eating monster (bhoo bakasurudu).
The complaints to the EC were distorted at times, blaming the other party for any decision of the ECI that went against them.
The BRS held the Congress responsible for the withdrawal of consent by the ECI for the release of Rythu Bandhu money, even though it had only asked the commission to prevent the BRS from using the consent to its advantage in the poll campaign, probably subscribing to the theory that in politics the end justifies the means.
The three parties kept parroting to the audience the salient features of their manifesto, not caring if anyone was showing any interest as the narration inevitably was dull and humdrum.
They came out with a series of promises to the eclectic crowds, trying to outdo their rivals. There was no end to the freebies offered and no explanation of how the party in question would implement them with limited sources of the state.
The only answer that everyone gave was that the economy, which was growing rapidly, would throw up enough resources to meet the additional demand. Though unconvincing, the people had to hear them out, as they remained prisoners of the politicians for nearly a month.
The end of campaigning heralds the commencement of the silent period, during which time campaigning in any form is verboten.
Prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) came into effect in the state banning the assembly of four or more persons. The ECI, however, allowed the political parties to undertake door-to-door campaigns during the silent period.
Those who came from outside to campaign for political parties had been asked to leave. The EC has kept a watch, hawk-like, to prevent the candidates from influencing the voters with inducements of money and liquor.
Security has been beefed up at inter-state checkposts to prevent huge amounts of money from entering the state. The officials have already seized a mind-boggling sum of ₹724 crore till now, since 9 October.
All the political parties made full use of social media in getting their message through to the voters. It added a new dimension as it is seen reaching the voters on a scale not expected.
With the EC not fixing any cap on the expenditure by political parties, the candidates are taking enough care to see that all their campaigning went in the name of the party.
The EC fixed a cap of ₹40 lakh for each candidate but it is a pittance when it comes to expenditure by the candidates which usually goes up to ₹20 crore to ₹30 crore and even more.
The parties took recourse to songs with catchy tunes to broadcast their message. For instance, the song Gulabeela Jendalamma of the BRS has overnight become so popular that other poetical parties “stole the tune” and replaced the content with theirs.
Similarly, Marpu Kavali, Congress Ravali of the Congress and Saalu dora Selavu dora of the BJP became very popular.
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