Telangana Rashtra Samithi president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s much ambitious plan to play a key role in national politics to bring about a “qualitative change in the governance” at the Centre seems to be shelved, at least for now.
The landslide victory of the Bharatiya Janata Party in four states, particularly in Uttar Pradesh, has made several regional parties rethink on their strategies on the next Lok Sabha elections.
For them, safeguarding their hold in their respective states has become more important than conquering the BJP at the Centre.
Take the case of West Bengal chief minister and Trinamul Congress president Mamata Banerjee. She has initially shown a lot of ambition in becoming the Prime Minister one day or the other.
But now, her only objective now on is to see that the BJP doesn’t grow in West Bengal, so that she can retain power in the state subsequent elections, too. Same is the case with Jharkhand chief minister Hemanth Soren and Tamil Nadu chief minister M K Stalin.
Even Delhi chief minister and Aam Admi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal is not in hurry to emerge as an alternative to the BJP at the Centre.
He has ensured the defeat of the BJP in Delhi twice and has now conquered Punjab. He knows that it would take several years to turn into a national party, so as to take on the BJP.
The poor performance of the Congress in the latest assembly elections is also one of the reasons why these regional parties backtracking on building up an anti-BJP front.
Except Mamata Banerjee, many of the regional parties were hoping to take the Congress party along with them to fight against the BJP.
With the Congress putting up a poor show, these parties would turn their attention on their respective states, leaving the Centre to the BJP.
Under these circumstances, what can KCR do alone by entering the national politics? There are absolutely no takers for his call for his anti-BJP front talk. In fact, he did not get any response from Kejriwal during his recent visit to New Delhi.
On the other hand, Kejriwal is said to be planning to expand his base to Telangana as well, going by the statements of AAP leader Somnath Bharati.
So, the immediate task before KCR is to see that the TRS doesn’t lose Telangana to the BJP in the next elections, instead of aspiring for a key role in the national politics. He can continue with his anti-BJP and anti-Modi rhetoric but it should be confined to the state.
If the BJP captures power in Telangana, it is very difficult for KCR to return to power again in the coming years and the TRS might end up like Janata Dal (S) of Deve Gowds in Karnataka.
