Intense scrutiny awaits TRS

With the term of the first-ever government in Telangana State having crossed the halfway mark, the honeymoon period for the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS)-led government is done and over with. It is a new beginning today.

By all accounts it is going to be a dicey 2017 for the State government on various counts with the most pronounced one being on the ‘achievable’ abilities of the Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR), whose administration will come in for closer scrutiny considering that the ruling party has always harped on ‘delivering the goods’ and ‘honouring the promises’ orchestrations.

That way, it has to prove that it is a party that is unlike the run-of-the-mill political entities and comes with a marked difference in providing ‘transparent’ governance and an administration that will be people-friendly in letter and spirit, implying that it makes no empty promises for sheer electoral gains.

Politically, KCR has succeeded in weakening principal opposition parties - the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the Congress - by poaching their senior leaders soon after coming to power with a landslide majority.

As things stand, the Telangana Telugu Desam Party (TTDP) is virtually decimated while the Congress party that ruled united Andhra Pradesh for decades together is struggling to regain lost ground.

The internal squabbles within it have come as a blessing in disguise for TRS, which is leaving no stone unturned to exploit the golden opportunity as a means to consolidate its position as the ‘only’ party that matters in the prevailing circumstances.

One cannot deny the fact that KCR has been quite the trailblazer as far as administrative daredevilry is concerned. Creation of smaller districts evidences this largely. Despite being damned and castigated by people from all walks of life, the Chief Minister went ahead with his proposal.

Three months down the line, it has proved such a massive hit that it enhanced KCR’s credibility. Smaller districts helped put developmental activities on the fast track.

Similar accolades have come in for other pet projects like Gurukulam schools for the poor; pensions to old and widows; TS iPASS; Mission Kakatiya and Mission Bhagiratha. Not surprisingly, each has added to its avowed claim of Telangana being the ‘destination’ State for developmental activities.

However, the erudition in KCR will now goad him to redraw his strategies considering that with politics being a roller-coaster ride and makes for strange bedfellows, the opposition would start singing different tunes and in a voice that would be hummed in a drummed up ‘united we stand’ chorus.

Twists and turns will be the order of the day in 2017, more so because the State will go to polls in another two-and-half years, and the TRS would have to reckon with reinvigorated and twice smarter Congress party and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Although presently both TRS and BJP appear to be moving closer to each other, political circles predict that this bonhomie will be short-lived as the BJP central leadership has decided to go aggressive after the UP elections and start implementing its strategies in Telangana State.

The Congress too is gearing up for a similar revamp. Besides bringing in a new dynamism into the party’s State unit, the AICC is to hit the streets with a major offensive against the ruling party.

One should remember that TRS won over the hearts of the locals with its ‘Our land, our water, our jobs’ slogan. The year ahead will be decisive because the government has to prove that it is serious about honouring promises like the two bedroom houses for poor and reservation for Muslims and STs in proportion to their population.

This is going to be one hell of a major challenge as the government is finding it difficult to identify land for the housing scheme. To add to its misery, contractors are shying away as the profit margins are very low. Schemes pertaining to free health and KG to PG are yet to take-off and remain on paper.

The adverse impact of demonetisation will also lead to a slowdown of ongoing schemes. In fact, KCR has, on ample occasions, spoken about the ‘difficult times’ being faced by his government since November 8. This even as analysts and people in the know accuse the government of ignoring problems of farmers, weavers and artisans.

The ruling party will be racing against time to prove that KCR is a ‘great visionary’ and KT Rama Rao is a ‘dynamic’ minister’ and together they would make Hyderabad the most ‘enviable’ city in the country.

Until the time infrastructural facilities are put in place, the grandiose schemes may boomerang much to the delight of ‘opportunistic’ opposition parties, which remain clueless on taking the government head-on. The changing political dynamics may come as major hurdles to unilateral decisions.

Indeed, 2017 could well mark the beginning of a hitherto unknown litmus test for KCR and his Council of Ministers, which managed to bulldoze its way all along.