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Soon after the announcement of exit polls in the Telangana assembly on Thursday evening, the Congress party was on cloud nine as majority of them predicted a possible victory for the party.
Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president A Revanth Reddy even went to the extent of calling upon his party leaders to begin celebrations without even waiting for the declaration of actual results on Sunday.
However, the Congress high command is still apprehensive about the results. The party is gearing up to prepare for the eventuality in the event of a hung assembly, as predicted by some survey agencies and media houses.
So, within hours of the exit polls, the Congress high command started sending messages to the prospective MLAs – those who have fair chances of winning – to be prepared to be moved to a special camp, most likely to be held in Bengaluru or other suitable parts of Karnataka.
Obviously, the Congress doesn’t want its MLAs to be poached by the Bharat Rashtra Samithi led by chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, who is known for such wily tactics.
If the BRS crosses 50 seats and the Congress falls short by even four or five seats, there is every possibility that KCR would go all out to lure the Congress MLAs to his side and form the government for the third consecutive time.
In 2014, the BRS won only 63 seats, just three more than the absolute majority mark. In a bid to gain control over the state politics completely, KCR poached 12 MLAs from Telugu Desam Party, eight from the Congress, three from YSRCP and two from the BSP.
“So, there is no surprise, if he resorts to the same tactics this time as well. So, it is always better to be cautious. Hence the plan to shift the MLAs to the camp in Karnataka. If necessary, the Congress will have to reverse poaching of the BRS MLAs into its camp,” a party source said.
