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It has been nine and a half years since Telangana state has been formed and the Telangana sentiment has played a big role in the two assembly elections since then.
Needless to say Bharat Rashtra Samithi (earlier Telangana Rashtra Samithi) was the biggest beneficiary of this sentiment.
Yet, the BRS leaders, including their president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, are still trying to exploit this sentiment to win the elections in the state once again.
“Have the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party ever said Jai Telangana? They do not have any affinity towards our state. It is our state and we have to rule it. Not the leaders imposed by Delhi,” KCR said at his public meeting held at Devarakadra on Monday.
In fact, till a few months ago, KCR was giving the impression that his party would move on from the Telangana issues, which have more or less been resolved and focus on national issues. At every meeting, he was only raising national issues.
But with the assembly elections fast approaching, KCR, his son K T Rama Rao and nephew T Harish Rao suddenly started reiterating on Telangana issues. They are talking about the same topic which they did before 2014 elections – KCR taking up fast-unto-death and spearheading the Telangana movement etc.
Obviously, the BRS leaders do not want to give advantage to the Congress, which granted Telangana.
KCR is once again seeking to kick up the Telangana sentiment to attack the Congress – saying it was responsible for the merger of Telangana with Andhra, the delay in granting statehood and the death of hundreds of people for separate state.
He wants to show the Congress as the villain and project himself as the sole champion of Telangana.
“It looks silly. Formation of Telangana is an old issue now. What is the point in talking about the agitations in the past, when the Telangana state has become a reality a decade ago?” an analyst argued.
Instead of talking about his government’s achievements, KCR is trying to divert the attention of the people from his failures and claiming that he should be given the third chance only because he played a major role in Telangana state formation.
Analysts say there is a Telangana sentiment among all the people who fought for its statehood, but this time it won’t work in favour of KCR but could boomerang on him, because many Telangana fighters feel that their efforts have been sidelined and KCR alone is enjoying and misusing power.
