Post Telangana, KCR's TRS at cross roads

When Kalvakuntla Chandrasekhara Rao, came out of the then TDP government led by Chandrababu Naidu, miffed with the portfolio allotted to him, no one gave him a chance to survive in Andhra Pradesh political field. However, he launched his own political party TRS and taking up the dead cause of Telangana movement, he reignited it, rising passions and then finally achieved his mission to carve out separate state of Telangana from Andhra Pradesh.

During TRS party's journey in 15 years he withered away many rebellions, storms which some times threatened to wipe three parties out of political map, like the popular aakarsh scheme launched by the then CM YS. Rajasekhara Reddy. In between KCR tried various means to exert pressure on highest authorities for Telangana formation, trying out various alliances permutations and combinations.

During these years, KCR faced criticism for indulging in extortion, spitting venom on Seemandhra people and creating great psyche. His opponents alleged that KCR and his party thrived on fanning passions and drawing political mileage out of it. Many blast him for turning the party into family unit with his son KTR, daughter Kavitha behaving as extra constitutional power.

However, all these shortcomings are overlooked by everyone to realise the long cherished dream of Telangana. Now that is realized, TRS party finds itself at crossroads. Even earlier there was talk of TRS and KCR not wanting Telangana. This could be true to some extent since the party will be left with no other emotive issue to fuel the passions of people.

Many feel TRS will be a non entity with KCR holding consultations with Sonia Gandhi and congress high command to keep up his promise of merging his party once Union Government delivers on Telangana.

From the beginning, TRS never had any organizational strength or cadre like TDP nor the expertise of Congress leadership to run the party. It rode on the sympathy wave for Telangana and even then it couldn't perform well in the elections. Keeping in view the above difficulties KCR is planning to merge his party with Congress.

This may suit his family interests, but for his cadre and leaders who strived for the success of the party for many years it will be an end to their political future. They are opposing the merger or alliance deal from the beginning. It has to be seen how KCR evolves himself once Telangana is formed. This is easier said than done and for it to happen TRS must change its strategy and concentrate on development of Telangana.

But this is something new for KCR and the TRS as they never tried it out. In more than a decade they only fanned passions, painting Seemandhra people as villains and instigating violence against them. However now with Telangana formed, there are no real and hidden enemies. If anything, people get disillusioned with TRS party and its leaders if they fail to provide jobs and other rosy promises which they have made in the event Telangana becomes a separate state. This is where KCR's political acumen will be put to test. People can know the true power of KCR and his party TRS if it remains an independent entity. May be fearing this, KCR is planning to enter into an alliance or merge his party with the Congress.

All these are however long-term implications but at present in short term, TRS has nothing to lose as it can enjoy the honeymoon period with Telangana people. This is proven true with various poll predictions which predict complete sweep for the party in Telangana region whenever elections are held. Once the party comes to power, testing times will start as people who supported them will start monitoring each and every move. For the present, focus is on KCR and his Car and speculation is on in which way he will drive his car with his party at Telangana crossroads.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of our organisation.