‘My enemy’s enemy is my friend’, goes an old adage and that is exactly what the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) and the ruling Congress are demonstrating in AP.
HYDERABAD: ‘My enemy’s enemy is my friend’, goes an old adage and that is exactly what the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) and the ruling Congress are demonstrating in AP by kicking off parleys to keep a resurgent TDP at bay in Telangana after its creditable performance in the May 29th by-polls in the region.
Barely a day after the declaration of the results to the by-polls in which the TRS was drubbed soundly, T Haresh Rao, a party strongman and nephew of party president K Chandrasekhara Rao called on chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy. The visit was ostensibly to seek permission to start a college, but according to sources the unstated purpose was to initiate a dialogue for an understanding for next years general polls against the TDP.
Not surprising considering the TDP won five seats to the assembly and one parliamentary seat apart from ending up a creditable runner-up in six other assembly constituencies. Another fallout of the result has been that the CPM, which had tied up the TDP for the by-polls, has ended its relationship with the latter saying it was ill conceived.
Yet another outcome of the result, in which the TRS was trounced, losing over 50% of the its previous mandate, and the party chief himself was able to retain his seat by the skin of his teeth, is that the proponents of a separate state within the Congress too are now marginalised and are making attempts to come closer to the high command and chief minister Reddy. TRS, which had a strength of 26 MLAs and five MPs after the 2004 election, has now been reduced to a single digit of 9 MLAs in the state assembly.
For Rajasekhara Reddy, bringing back a weaker TRS into the Congress fold would mean killing two birds with one stone. While it would mean TRS will eat humble pie, it will also help the wily politician keep his own detractors within the party in check apart from ensuring it will be tougher for the TDP to consolidate its vote in next year’s elections.
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