TRS scores a tactical victory

It was much ado about nothing with the Congress threat of taking on the TRS government ending in a whimper in the Legislative Assembly on Friday. At the end of the day, the Treasury Benches were gifted a rather unexpected moral victory.

The Congress strategy to threaten the defectors took a beating as the TRS in a counter strategy sounded the Congress members who had joined the TRS to vote against the Appropriation Bill so that they could make a mockery of the whip issued by the CLP.

On the other hand, Leader of the Opposition K Jana Reddy was also not in favour of opposing the Bill as he contended that it would go against the party line and expose themselves as anti-people’s party that was hindering the government’s grandiose but people-friendly plans.

The confusion within the Congress camp was evident from the moment they assembled in the House. N Uttam Kumar Reddy initiated the discussion stating that the Congress was opposing it. But the tone and tenor was not sustained during the later part of the day. The bravado fizzled out into an anti-climax when Jana Reddy leveraged the appeal of the Chief Minister to all parties seeking consensus on the first Appropriation Bill in the State’s history. Unanimous it was eventually after the Congress gave its whole-hearted support to it.

According to political observers, the already ‘aggrieved’ party feared a backlash if they do not support the bill as the defectors would score a high-moral victory. A ditto script it was in the Legislative Council, where Floor Leader D Srinivas took the line that though the estimates of the government were unrealistic and impractical and that the figures were not credible, they were supporting it as the people’s aspirations were high and they had reposed faith in the government.

How they read the message was not the concern of the TRS members as the party had achieved a spectacular verdict, which is sure to hold them in good stead for quite a while now.