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Hyderabad: With fewer than 20 days left for the elections, the two Telugu states Telangana and Andhra Pradesh were presenting a picture of contrast.
While Andhra Pradesh, where in addition to 25 Lok Sabha seats, 175-member Legislative Assembly was also at stake, was witnessing a fierce battle between ruling Telugu Desam of N Chandrababu Naidu and the main opposition YSR Congress led by YS Jaganmohan Reddy, in Telangana the battle has turned out be one-way in favour of the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS).
In Andhra Pradesh, Naidu was facing a tough challenge from his relatively younger and less experienced rival Jaganmohan Reddy. While Naidu has so far been busy with addressing the preparatory meetings of his party workers in different parts of the state, he formally kicked off his election campaign on Wednesday from the Godavari belt.
Jagan’s election meetings on the other hand were drawing impressive crowds. Both the leaders were carrying out no-hold-barred attacks on each other, questioning their ability to protect the interest of the state. While Naidu has repeatedly alleged that Jagan had a nexus with BJP and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, Reddy has charged Naidu with corruption and failure in ensuring development and jobs for the youth. “If you want jobs, Babu must go,” he told a mammoth meeting in Prakasham district.
That the battle was evenly matched was clear from the outcome of the 2014 elections, when the two parties polled almost equal share of votes with a slight edge to TDP. However, what has made any forecast of the elections difficult this time was the presence of a third significant force in the form of the Jana Sena Party of film star Pawan Kalyan. Which way he will cut and who will suffer more may very well decide the final outcome of the fight.
Kalyan, who himself will be contesting the assembly election from Gajuwaka and Bhimavaram constituencies, was carefully fielding his candidates from different constituencies. On Wednesday, his brother and actor Naga Babu joined JSP and he will be contesting from Narsapuram Lok Sabha constituency. Pawan and Babu are brothers of popular star Chiranjeevi, who is keeping away from the politics at present. After merging his own party Praja Rajyam into Congress, Chiranjeevi gradually faded away.
BJP and the Congress were also in the fray but both the national parties were reduced to margins.
On the other hand the election scenario in Telangana was very much clear with the ruling TRS headed by Rao establishing total dominance over his rivals. After the shock defeat in the state assembly elections in December, Congress not only failed to recover but has lost more than one third of its MLAs to the TRS.
In latest developments on Wednesday, another Congress MLA B Harshavardhan Reddy from Kolhapur joined the TRS taking the total number of defectors to nine. If four more Congress MLAs defect, Congress loses the post of the Leader of Opposition in the state assembly. In these circumstances a demoralised and dejected Congress was hardly in a position to mount a serious challenge to the resources rich TRS.
Rao, who is eyeing a crucial role in New Delhi after the elections, has now turned his focus on the other rival BJP. Addressing an election rally in his daughter’s constituency Nizamabad, he made a scathing attack on the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Taking a strong objection to the BJP’s attempts to drag religion into politics, he asked: “What are you? Are you a political party or a party preaching a religion...? BJP’s Hindutva slogan is bogus for votes. Hinduism never preached hatred towards others.”
He told BJP leaders that his Hindu identity was real and he does not need any lesson from BJP on it.
His remarks came after state BJP President K Lakshman challenged him to spell out his stand on the Ram temple issue.
“Why are you raking up this issue? Who are you to decide the birthplace of Rama? Are these the issues Prime Minister of a country should address? We have religious heads like Sringeri Peethadipati Jagadguru Shankaracharya or Chinna Jeer Swami to decide it,” Rao asked.
His attack on the BJP is being seen as an attempt to reassure the state’s crucial minority voters that the TRS will not join the BJP after elections. On the contrary he said by winning all the 17 seats along with its ally MIM, TRS will play a major role in the formation of next government in Delhi.
