BJP may emerge a force to reckon with

Bugle has been sounded for the battle for baldia overnight, proving the general speculations of a procrastinated poll to the civic body utterly wrong. The unexpected rout in the by-elections to Dubbaka Assembly seat that fell vacant following the demise of the sitting MLA Solipeta Ramalinga Reddy, an influential leader belonging to the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), in August this year, seems to have woken up the ruling party commander and Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao from his political reverie.

It was widely believed that the Chief Minister would apparently put off the elections to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) to late January or early February 2012 as circumstances were not in favour of the TRS to face an election as the people in the State capital were totally upset following the recent floods that turned the streets of the megalopolis into dumps of stinking muck and left thousands of families high and dry.

Questions were raised about the sincerity of municipal administration and the ruling party in taking care of the welfare of common public and allegations flew thick and fast that the TRS leaders were busy making fast bucks by hook or by crook, totally ignoring the voters who sent them to the seat of power. An astute politician he is, Chandrashekar Rao sensed trouble and reportedly decided to postpone the GHMC elections and wait for the electorate to cool down so that he can ensure the win in the civic polls.

But Dubbaka by-poll result seems to have sent a red signal to the wily patriarch who could feel slight tremors the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been creating across the State and made up his mind. With the BJP hell-bent to make inroads in the TRS stronghold and getting positive signs of public support in the forthcoming elections, Chandrashekar Rao does not want to take a chance now. Before the public ire translates into anti-incumbency sentiment, the TRS chief ostensibly wants to retain the GHMC which it won hands down in the last elections.

It may be recalled that the Chief Minister convened a meeting with Asaduddin Owaisi, president of Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, a TRS alliance partner, for a meeting at Pragati Bhavan to finalise the seat sharing and other things recently. With hardly 13 days left for the polls now, the decision to hold GHMC elections in such a short time has kicked up a hornets' nest, catching the Opposition parties off guard.

The Congress, a useless and faceless political entity that is gasping for breath on its deathbed in the State is no rival for the TRS-MIM combine. The hitherto invisible enemy – the BJP – of the TRS in particular and the hoi polloi of the State in general, has begun to raise its head, slowly, but steadily. The TRS leaders including its bellwether family should realise that they have to act fast and care for the people, who had been exploited over six decades socially, economically and politically.

The party that came to power on the aspirations and sentiments of over 30 million of the populace should give them their share of welfare back. If the present attitude of the ruling party and its leaders persist, time is not far away that they also will cease to exist in the political spectrum of the State. No doubt, TRS may win the civic body elections, but beware, a much stronger force may emerge subsequently, if the ruling party does not act wise.