A resurgent Congress, decided to repeat its November 2023 Assembly election victory; the regional Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS), which has not too long ago suffered a collection of setbacks and is preventing to revive its fortunes; and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is working to enhance its tally in the State to contribute to its nationwide objective of 400 seats — collectively, they sum up the temper in Telangana forward of polling for 17 Lok Sabha seats on May 13.
The ruling Congress in the State is striving to maintain its momentum, banking on the six ensures from its Assembly ballot manifesto, of which 4 have now been fulfilled. It can be roping in leaders of different events to enhance its probabilities whereas taking the BRS and the BJP head on. Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy is leading the Congress marketing campaign, assisted by Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and his Cabinet colleagues N. Uttam Kumar Reddy, D. Sridhar Babu, Ponnam Prabahakar, and Komatireddy Venkat Reddy. National leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra are additionally planning rallies in the State.
Also learn | Communal polarisation dominate election campaign in Telangana
Former CM and BRS chief Okay. Chandrashekhar Rao has launched into a bus yatra masking all the 17 constituencies, although the Election Commission of India slapped a two-day suspension on his campaign for the offensive language he used in opposition to the rivals. BRS working president Okay.T. Rama Rao and former Minister T. Harish Rao are the different leaders campaigning for their social gathering’s candidates.
Hoping to journey on the picture of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the slogan ‘Ab ki baar, 400 paar’, the BJP’s nationwide leaders are extensively touring Telangana’s rural areas to enhance the social gathering’s prospects. The Prime Minister and Union Home Minister Amit Shah have addressed greater than half a dozen conferences, their speeches crammed with polarising rhetoric.
Changing fortunes
The State of Telangana was formally shaped in June 2014, days after the basic election. The BRS (then identified as the TRS) was the clear front-runner in that 2014 election, bagging 11 of the State’s 17 seats, adopted by two for the Congress, and one every for the Telugu Desam Party, the BJP, the All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), and the YSR Congress Party.
Five years later, nonetheless, the BRS couldn’t attain the double digit mark, successful solely 9 seats regardless of having made a clear sweep in the Assembly elections held just a few months earlier in December 2018. That 2019 basic election additionally noticed the BJP rising as a pressure to reckon with in Telangana, bagging 4 seats – Adilabad, Nizamabad, Karimnagar and Secunderabad — and offering a foothold for the social gathering to broaden its base in a State the place it hitherto had a marginal presence. The Congress, licking its wounds from the drubbing it had acquired in the Assembly election had managed to win three Lok Sabha seats, whereas the AIMIM retained its stronghold in Hyderabad.
Turncoats in demand
This time round, a fast scan of the candidate lists of the three main events exhibits that a number of sitting MPs and senior leaders who’ve not too long ago switched sides are actually contesting in opposition to their earlier events. The BJP has gained the most in this regard, welcoming rivals into its fold with none reservations, hoping for an electoral payoff. BJP leaders justify their actions on the grounds that the social gathering intends to ship a substantial variety of MPs from Telangana to the Parliament.
The Congress is just not harmless both, having inspired defection by giving its tickets to turncoats. In not less than 4 parliamentary constituencies, the Congress candidates are defectors. The social gathering’s efforts to retain its authority in the election will be seen in the CM’s repeated assertions that this election will be sure that Mr. Gandhi will develop into the subsequent Prime Minister.
Over its 4 months in workplace, the Congress-ruled State authorities has tried to roll out a few of its ballot ensures in phases, regardless of monetary constraints. The social gathering hopes that the goodwill it had received in the Assembly election will carry over to the Lok Sabha ballot as properly.
KCR’s woes
BRS chief KCR has tried to drill some confidence in his cadres by saying that the social gathering is passing by a tough patch and that is solely non permanent. The social gathering additionally has to cope with key leaders deserting the BRS for greener pastures.
The arrest of MLC Okay. Kavitha, KCR’s daughter, had forged a shadow on the social gathering, together with the ongoing probe into allegations that some law enforcement officials and former BRS leaders have been concerned in the cellphone tapping case. The major Opposition social gathering can be on the again foot with regard to the broken piers of the Medigadda barrage of the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation scheme, touted as the greatest such scheme in the world.
Nevertheless, the BRS has began focusing on the authorities, accusing it of depriving the farmers of their irrigation sources as their crops wither attributable to dried up reservoirs and final 12 months’s erratic monsoon. It can be lashing out at the Congress for its failure to implement a promised ₹2 lakh farm mortgage waiver in the first 100 days of formation of the Congress authorities. The Chief Minister is countering that cost by claiming that the guarantees can be fulfilled earlier than August 15.
Communal sentiments
The BJP has riled communal sentiments, and talks about cancelling the State’s quota for Muslims. The cost that the BJP will change the Constitution has additionally caught the social gathering on the mistaken foot. Another cost that the BJP is attempting to push back is the accusation that it’s going to scale back reservations for Scheduled Castes and Tribes.
As D-Day nears, the prevailing situation exhibits a straight battle between the Congress and the BJP, with the BRS additionally placing up a spirited battle in some constituencies. In North Telangana, the polarisation of voters alongside communal traces is seen in Adilabad, Nizamabad, and Karimnagar Lok Sabha constituencies. In the Hyderabad constituency, the BJP goes all out to rake up sentiments as its candidate Madhavi Latha takes on the AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi.
Unlike in the final Assembly election, the place Muslims voted for the BRS and Congress alike, this 12 months, there appears to be a transparent consolidation of the Muslim votebank in favour of the Congress. This might present an enormous enhance for the Congress in over half a dozen constituencies, the place Muslims are current in sizeable numbers.
As voters make their alternative in hard-fought triangular contests, the Congress is assured of enhancing its tally and the BJP hopes to the touch the double-digit mark; for the BRS, its political future could also be at stake in this election.