The approach of the Narendra Modi regime towards taking to a logical conclusion the Delhi liquor scam, in which Aam Admi Party chief and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, his cabinet colleagues as well as Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) leader and daughter of TS Chief Minster K. Kavitha are allegedly involved, is key in determining the seriousness of the Bharatiya Janata Party as a major contesting party in the upcoming Telangana Assembly elections.
All along, the BJP has been quite aggressive in its efforts to end the rule of the Bharat Rashtra Samiti government headed by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao in Telangana State. The BJP’s impressive win in the Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad elections gave a boost to the fighting spirit of the saffron party in the state against the KCR government. Likewise, BJP’s thumping victories in two bypolls — for the Dubbak and Huzurabad Assembly constituencies — in Telangana gave heft to the party. However, the party seems to be over in Telangana, going by the BJP’s humiliating defeat in the recent Karnataka Assembly elections. The saffron party must now reassess its national priorities, if it wants even a foothold in Telangana, where it has been projecting itself as an alternative to BRS. The BJP’s loss in Karnataka, and that too, to its arch-rival Congress, has prompted the party to modify its next course of action.
At the national level, AAP has become a hurdle for BJP’s growth in Delhi. Besides, AAP registered impressive victory in the Punjab Assembly elections, throwing a challenge to the BJP and the Congress.
The alleged involvement of Kejriwal and Kavita in the Delhi liquor scam seems to have changed the priorities of BJP. KCR has been the target of BJP since the beginning of his second stint as the Chief Minister of Telangana. Now KCR has upped the ante by projecting himself as a national leader, after renaming TRS as BRS. He has travelled to several places in Maharashtra for spreading the wings of BRS. Noticeably, the areas covered by KCR during his tours were parts of the erstwhile Hyderabad State that functioned between 1952 and 1956 under the chief ministership of renowned political figure Dr. Burgula Ramakrishna Rao. The erstwhile State of Hyderabad comprised three distinct areas with people speaking mainly three languages viz. Telugu, Marathi, and Kannada. In 1956, the Telugu-speaking areas of Telangana were merged with the state of Andhra that had been carved out of the composite Madras State in 1953. Similarly, five districts with predominantly Marathi-speaking people were clubbed with the Bombay State and three Kannada-speaking districts joined Mysore State that was later renamed as Karnataka. This could be one reason why KCR could attract crowds in these areas. In fact, All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi once said during the Telangana statehood movement that his party would prefer the restoration of the erstwhile Hyderabad State. Both these leaders have concentrated on regions of the erstwhile Hyderabad State for their political expansion. The Aurangabad Lok Sabha constituency was wrested by the Majlis. Aurangabad is the second seat that the MIM has won in the Lok Sabha after Hyderabad. Aurangabad was the first capital of the Nizams’ princely state in the initial years of their 224-year rule.
The BJP has the unenviable task of capturing power in Delhi, where the AAP is well-entrenched after bagging 67 seats out of 70. The BJP lost power after three chief ministers (Madanlal Khurana, Sahib Singh Verma & Sushma Swaraj) were appointed over the five-year tenure starting 1993 in the state of Delhi. People taught the BJP a lesson for not honouring stability. In Madhya Pradesh also, the BJP appointed three chief ministers later. Despite the Congress’ hat-trick win in the Delhi Assembly, the BJP managed to bag majority of Lok Sabha seats in the national capital. Now it is struggling to face the AAP, which has been growing in popularity. The Delhi liquor scam seems to have shown the BJP its priorities in the months ahead. In 2001, the decision of taking active part in Telangana was shelved for the purpose of enlisting political support of then chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu. The present situation may come in handy for the Congress party in the upcoming elections. Having won in the Karnataka polls, the Congress is confident of wresting power in TS by capitalising on the anti-incumbency factor. No wonder, they are boldly claiming that their leader Sonia Gandhi would get ‘reward’ from the people to whom she had granted statehood.
