Telangana Assembly all set to become Congress-mukt
After a disastrous performance in the December 2018 Assembly elections, the Congress has been hit by steady desertions. As many 11 out of the 19 legislators have already announced their decision to cross over to the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS).
Two more MLAs are believed to have made up their mind to defect to the TRS camp. This would reduce the party’s tally in the 119-member Assembly to 6 and deprive it of the main opposition party status in the House. If the number of the Congress MLAs defecting to TRS reaches 13, it means two-thirds of the legislators will be with the ruling party. This way, the MLAs will escape the provisions of the anti-defection act.
“Once we reach the two-third figure, we will seek the merger of our group with the TRS. As per rules and procedures, the Assembly Speaker will recognise the merger,” said Kantha Rao, Chirumarthi Lingaiah and B Haripriya Naik, the three MLAs who recently switched over to the ruling party recently.
Sources in the TRS camp say the “process would be completed in a couple of days.” However, state Congress president N Uttam Kumar Reddy, who contested from Nalgonda Lok Sabha constituency in the April 11 elections, put on a brave face and said there would be no further defections from the party despite the ruling party’s “devious designs” to engineer defections through offer of inducements and “decimate the opposition.” He demanded disqualification of the turncoat MLAs.
Writing on the wall
The writing on the wall was clear for the opposition party soon after the Assembly elections. The TRS, headed by K Chandrasekhar Rao, swept the polls and secured a second term in office, bagging 88 seats while its friendly party All India Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) won 7 seats in the city. Opposition alliance ‘Mahakutami’, comprising Congress, Telugu Desam Party, CPI and Telangana Jana Samithi, suffered a severe drubbing. The TDP, which was once a formidable force in the region, managed to win just two seats while BJP, Forward Bloc and independents won one seat each. With the independent and Forward Bloc MLAs shifting loyalties to it, the TRS improved its tally to 90 within a week of the results being announced. Now, the TRS’ strength has crossed the 100 mark, the target set by KCR during electioneering.
First defection after LS polls
On April 22 night, the Congress suffered yet another blow when senior leader and MLA from Bhoopalapally constituency Gandra Venkata Ramana Reddy quit the party and announced his decision to join the TRS in the presence of its working president K T Rama Rao. He is the first opposition MLA to defect to the ruling camp after the Lok Sabha elections. A common refrain of the defectors has been that they were “inspired” by KCR’s commitment to the development of the state and that he alone could take India’s youngest state to glorious heights. With his defection, the Congress’ tally in the Assembly has been reduced to 8.
No opposition leader status
Once the Assembly convenes for the monsoon session in June, the defected legislators of the Congress are expected to move a petition, requesting the Assembly Speaker to recognize their merger with the ruling party. Under the anti-defection law, if two-third of the legislators of a party defect, they will not attract the provisions of the anti-defection act.
As a result, the Congress stands to lose the status of main opposition party as it requires 10% of the total strength of the House. In such an eventuality, the Congress floor leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka will lose the status of Leader of the Opposition, which is equivalent to cabinet minister rank. The State Legislative Council has already become ‘Congress-mukt’, with four of its six MLCs defecting to the TRS while the term of the remaining two ended last month.
Existential crisis
Several factors have contributed to the present existential crisis of the Congress. Despite granting statehood for Telangana during UPA-II in 2014, the grand old party has failed to capitalise on it but allowed KCR to walk away with all the credit and reap electoral benefits by positioning himself as the architect of the new state. The party could win just two LS seats in the 2014 elections while the TRS walked away with 12. It was a poor show in the Assembly polls as well with the opposition party managing to win 21 seats.
The absence of a strong and charismatic regional leader with a statewide appeal had a telling effect. The party had, over years, failed to nurture strong regional leaders who could take independent decisions and stand up to the emergence of a formidable regional player. Fierce infighting, groupism and lack of a cohesive campaign strategy added to the party’s woes.
The TRS played the ‘Telangana pride’ card to the hilt in the recent Assembly polls. As a result, the Congress suffered badly because of its alliance with the Chandrababu Naidu-led TDP, widely seen as an ‘enemy of Telangana’.
