Will Modi allow KCR to be the Nizam of Telangana?

Earlier this week, Presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind was bowled over by the super reception he received from K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) in Hyderabad. Not only did the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) supremo organise a meeting for Kovind with his party legislators, but his men also put up hoardings in many parts of Hyderabad, welcoming the candidate to the city.

KCR had earlier also rushed to Delhi to be at the side of Kovind when he submitted his nomination papers. At the same time – going by some newspaper reports – KCR snubbed the rival candidate Meira Kumar by not only refusing her an appointment but also not receiving her phone call.

If the likely–to-be President by any chance avers that KCR has fallen in love with him, it would be a gross mistake. By backing Kovind, KCR is actually trying to ingratiate himself with Narendra Modi, in the same way that he would with Congress supremo Sonia Gandhi before the formation of Telangana had been announced.

KCR’s unspoken message to Modi is not difficult to figure out: You be the supreme in New Delhi, I offer you my obeisance and agree to whatever you say, but in return let me be the boss of Hyderabad and Telangana. This is the reason why KCR announced that he would support the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate for the President even before the name of Kovind was announced.

The arrangement proposed informally by KCR is similar to the relationship that the Nizams of Hyderabad had with the British Indian governments. The Nizams ran Hyderabad state as they wanted even as remaining as vassals of the British who kept a watch through a Resident posted at the court.

But there is only one catch: howsoever KCR is desirous of this superior–subordinate relationship, it is difficult for Modi to agree to this. For Modi, who along with his associate Amit Shah runs the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), expanding the party rapidly across the country is their primary aim.

In fact, Amit Shah – as the president of BJP – has identified six priority states where to ramp up rapidly and Telangana is foremost amongst them. With the purpose of rapidly strengthening the BJP in the state, Amit Shah is visiting Telangana in September, a follow-up of his earlier trip in May-end.

Although the Congress is the main opposition party in Telangana, the BJP through a slew of moves (including encouraging crossovers from the Grand Old Party) seeks to weaken it. The idea is to empower the BJP such that in the 2019 election, the saffron party directly challenges the TRS. BJP representatives say that the party now endeavours to win and rule over all the states in the country.

It is not that a smart operator like KCR is unaware of the BJP plan of action. But he is banking on the general reluctance of Congress members to join BJP. This reluctance stems from the fact that the two parties operate in entirely different fashions and it is difficult for Congressmen to adapt to the culture of the BJP.

Good examples of this are Kanna Lakshminarayana (who was minister in AP Congress governments) and D Purandeswari (daughter of NTR who was minister in Manmohan Singh government). Both of them are now with the BJP, but their condition is akin to a fish out of water. In fact, ever since he came to power, KCR’s TRS has kept its doors open allowing leaders from other parties including the Congress to join without any hitch whatsoever.

The TRS chief also feels that the BJP – with a decidedly north Indian ethos – will not find it easy to adapt to the culture of Telangana and appeal to the sentiments of the local voter. Moreover, the local leaders of BJP are weak and have not shown much spunk till now and are happy in their miniscule areas of influence and small successes. KCR avers that these small-time leaders cannot be easily galvanised into action by their party.

But at the same time, KCR also knows that Modi and Amit Shah are incredibly focused and energised and the duo will not plump for KCR without giving the local BJP a chance. In all likelihood, the views of the Modi-Shah duo will also be guided by KCR’s past ‘performance.’

They would not be unaware of how KCR befuddled Congress chief Sonia Gandhi. KCR had publicly declared that Sonia was like a ‘mother to him’ and later offered to merge TRS into the Congress in lieu of creation of Telangana. He also called on Sonia in 10 Janpath with his entire family (including his grandson in tow) swearing total loyalty. In the event, however, nothing of this kind happened and KCR walked away taking the entire credit of creating Telangana. For the records, however, TRS blamed Congress leader Digvijay Singh for the mess-up.

Thus, even as he indirectly professes loyalty to the BJP, KCR is apprehensive about Modi endorsing him and realises that the latter is a dyed-in-the-wool politician and not a naïve player like Sonia who is guided by a coterie around her and is out of touch with reality. Thus KCR has kept his options open.

This is the reason why he in April rammed the bill for 12 per cent reservation for Muslims in educational institutions and jobs through the assembly even as the BJP stiffly opposed the move. KCR believes that this reservation move will get the Muslim vote en masse (It is a different matter that the move will not actually fructify because with this total reservation goes above the constitutionally mandated).

KCR’s virtual display of loyalty towards Modi, however, serves another purpose. This is to convince the ever-trusting common man that he is close to Modi and in his good books and, therefore, he can get things done for them and the state. It is possible that if people feel that he is close to Modi they will stop baying for his blood in the aftermath of the huge land scam in Hyderabad and the failure of the government to create adequate number of jobs after Telangana came into being. When KCR came to office in 2014, his popularity was unprecedented.

This continued for a long time but now the people are fast becoming critical, making KCR a bit apprehensive. The signs of nervousness were betrayed by KCR himself when he came up with the results of an unbelievable election survey in May-end that projected an incredulous tally of 111 out of the total 119 assembly seats in the 2019 elections at the present level of support.

The survey declared KCR as the best performing MLA and his son K T Rama Rao and nephew Harish Rao at the second and the third slots. The Congress was projected to get two seats and the BJP and the TDP would not even open their accounts.

So, now it will be interesting to see whether the Modi-Shah combine will be unrelenting in building their party in the new state or depend on KCR support by allowing him to be the new Nizam of Telangana.

By: Kingshuk Nag