Telangana | Why Lok Sabha polls seem to have turned into extended assembly elections

India may be in the thick of an intense battle to pick a new Lok Sabha, but Telangana gives the impression that the general election is an extended battle of the assembly polls held only in November.

From Malkajgiri to Mahbubnagar and from Medak to Adilabad, the oft repeated campaign theme of the Opposition is not about who takes power in Delhi but the five-month-old Congress government’s future in the state.

National issues have been thrown to the backburner. Whether the Revanth Reddy government will fall on its own or will Congress MLAs join hands with the BRS to unseat him or whether the BJP topples him has become a topic of serious debate for the opposition parties.

Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) supremo and former chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao claims that 25 Congress MLAs were in touch with him.

Target Revanth

The state with 17 Lok Sabha constituencies will see voting on May 13. A high-decibel campaign has been launched by various parties but the focus is about whether Anumula Revanth Reddy will remain the chief minister or not after the Lok Sabha elections.

Both the BRS and the BJP are giving two months to one year for the state government to collapse.

Curiously, it is neither Prime Minister Narendra Modi nor Congress leader Rahul Gandhi but Revanth Reddy who has become the most talked about person in the Lok Sabha election campaign in Telangana.

This has led many to believe that Revanth’s survival was dependent on how many seats he is able to win in the May 13 election. “The future will be uncertain for the chief minister if he wins less than eight MPs,” said Dr D Kesavulu Neta of the Telangana Intellectuals Forum.

KCR’s challenge

Addressing the first meeting of his 17-day bus tour in Miryalaguda on April 24, BRS chief KCR devoted all his energy to target the state government.

In his 30-minute speech, what KCR did was to list out the failures of Revanth Reddy to say that the farmers’ rights would be protected only if they elected a BRS candidate. “Give me 12 seats, I will bend the Congress government to its knees,” he boasted.

Participating in a road-show in Sircilla in the Karimnagar Lok Sabha constituency, KCR’s son and former minister KT Ramarao also harped on the same theme.

“Revanth Reddy’s government is bound to collapse in one year. It has come to power by making false promises and guarantees,” he said, campaigning for the BRS candidate B Vinod Kumar.

Modi’s mole?

In another road-show to seek votes for Ragidi Lakshma Reddy, the BRS candidate from Malkajgiri, Ramarao warned people that the Congress would stop all the welfare schemes if it wins most seats in the Lok Sabha.

Implying that Revanth was a BJP mole in the Congress, Ramarao alleged that the chief minister had fielded a dummy candidate in Malkajgiri only to help the BJP win there. The BJP candidate is Eatala Rajender, KCR's bete noire.

On Friday, T Harish Rao, a former finance minister and KCR’s nephew, dared Revanth Reddy to implement the crop loan waiver scheme by August 15 as promised.

Harish arrived at the Martyrs Pillar near the state assembly in Hyderabad with a large number of followers to take a vow that he would resign the moment the chief minister fulfilled his promise. He asked Revanth loudly if he would quit if he failed to waive off the Rs 2 lakh crop loan before August 15.

BJP echoes BRS

A similar narrative has been put forth by the BJP. Its Rajya Sabha member and National OBC Morcha president Dr K Laxman said the state government would collapse on its own in two months after the Lok Sabha elections.

“The BJP won’t topple the Congress government in the state. But it will collapse on its own,” Laxman told the media in Hyderabad on April 24 in the midst of the campaign.

Congress slams Modi

On the other hand, the Congress has targeted Modi stating the prime minister was an enemy of Telangana and the poor.

A chargesheet highlighting how the Modi government had done injustice to Telangana was released by Revanth Reddy on Thursday. In a hard-hitting speech at Sanga Reddy district on Friday, the chief minister warned: “Electing Modi gives license to scrap reservations for the poor.”

What KCR wants

There is a clear strategy behind KCR’s turning the Lok Sabha election into an assembly election, said Karli Srinivasulu, a noted political scientist.

“After the assembly battle, KCR’s national ambition has been proved to be a delusion. He has to come back to state politics for survival which depends on the number of seats he wins in the Lok Sabha election,” he said

“To achieve this, two things are contemplated: one, changing the name of BRS to Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), and two, winning more seats in the Lok Sabha to give an impression that KCR has defeated Revanth,” Srinivasulu, a former professor of political science from Osmania University, Hyderabad, told The Federal.

Working in tandem?

According to Kanneganti Ravi of Rythu Swarajya Vedika, both the BRS and BJP appear to be working in tandem to weaken the Congress government.

“First, they say Revanth with an ABVP background will split the Congress to join the BJP after the election. Next, an attempt is made to tell people that the Congress government has stopped the welfare schemes initiated by KCR. The Lok Sabha election has been converted into a ‘defeat Revanth' campaign. The Congress has to win more seats both at the state and the Centre for a smooth sail in Telangana,” he said.