TPCC pays back TRS at its own game

Raises bogey of regional bias

Having run out of ideas to corner the party that is ensconced firmly in the saddle, Telangana Congress leaders are trying newer ways and means to check the K Chandrashekar Rao-led government in Telangana State.

Every politician’s pet Issues like power and farmer suicides have been relegated to the backburner in the State as Rao and his Cabinet colleagues are mercilessly calling spade a spade rendering the opposition inept as far as these two issues are concerned.

Left with no other major problems to dangle around with and yet driven with the compelling urge to stay afloat, the Telangana Congress leaders have hit jackpot or so it seems. In a way, they are paying back the TRS at its own game-sentiments and regionalism chauvinism.

Playing the sentiment card, the Telangana Congress wants to take on the TRS, which had launched operation `Akarsh’ to wean away Congress MLAs. Not surprisingly many have fallen to the gimmick.

The Congress leaders are now raising the bogey of discrimination to South Telangana, which, incidentally, is a chink in the ruling party’s armour. The Chief Minister continues to harp on sentiment factor and has been accusing the neighbouring state of Andhra Pradesh for the power woes in Telangana as the singular cause for the spate of farmers suicides. He also raked up certain controversies with regard to power generation and sharing of water, which again were an extension of playing with people’s sentiments as a measure of covering up acts of omissions and commissions. The T Congress leaders, who discussed the issue with the party high command, have decided to take on the government using the same sentiment card least mindful that it could have serious long-term ramifications.

The T Congress is accusing TRS government of giving priority only to festivals of North Telangana and naming all the schemes after North Telangana rulers.

The party, according to analysts, has decided to raise the sentiment bogey since South Telangana is a stronghold of the Congress party. In fact, Congress had won 16 seats even when the sentiment factor was high while TRS which swept the polls in other parts of the state had to rest content with just 19 seats.

It is a battle of words which can only reverberate with each passing hour.