Politics of alienation – TRS pays high price జూన్ 12, 2008
Posted by bharath in Articles, Telangana, elections, politics.add a comment
Future imperfect
Amarnath K. Menon
June 5, 2008
It was a gamble that backfired.
In March, the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) chief K. Chandrashekara Rao asked all party MPs and MLAs to quit their seats, forcing by-elections, which he was certain his party would win and thus prove that the seven-year-old TRS and its separate statehood slogan still enjoyed popular backing.
But the drubbing the party got was a slap on its face. Its miscalculation and bravado led to the TRS strength declining from 26 to just seven MLAs and two MPs instead of four in 2004.
Desertions are likely even as the party think-tank discovers factors responsible for its poor show include its failure to convey to the electorate the need for the by-elections and Rao’s own irascible conduct.
His failure to take up a single public issue over the years in the belief that statehood for TRS was the panacea for all problems has cost the party dear.
Worse still, Rao, who had won the Karimnagar Lok Sabha seat with a huge margin in 2004 and again by a wide margin of over two lakh votes in the by-election he forced in 2006, managed to win this time by a meagre 15,675 votes. In as many as eight of the 16 Assembly constituencies the erosion of support was so high that TRS finished behind the Congress or TDP and even forfeited deposits in two cases.
Both the Congress and TDP have gained lost ground in the region.
An analysis of the voting trends and victory margins in the assembly segments, in which elections were held for either Lok Sabha or assembly seats, reveals that the Congress managed to secure a majority in 19 segments-13 segments under four Lok Sabha seats and six it won of the 46 assembly segments- where the by-elections were held.
TRS came first in 16 places-nine segments falling under the Lok Sabha seats and winning seven-while TDP managed to come third-winning four assembly seats and leading in six segments.
What cannot be glossed over is the fact that most contestants, irrespective of party, recognised the prevalence of a TRS sentiment and never spoke against it.
The Congress has gained more from this by-election than any other party because many of these seats were with TDP since 1983 which is why the Congress had given in to TRS in the electoral alliance of 2004. (ఇంకా…)
State Demand minus Public Issues – Failed TRS జూన్ 12, 2008
Posted by Telangana Utsav in In News, TDP, TRS, Telangana, elections, politics.add a comment
Lost leader
ANDHRA PRADESH
Telangana alive, despite TRS defeat
By Lalita Iyer
When he described the byelections as a “life and death” question for Telangana people, Telangana Rashtra Samithi leader K. Chandrasekhar Rao did not know it was going to be more a question of death, than life, for his party. The TRS suffered a heavy blow in the byelections, losing nine of 16 Assembly seats and two of four Lok Sabha seats it had held. The Congress added five to its tally and the Telugu Desam Party four, and they shared two Parliament seats.
By resigning its seats in the Assembly and Lok Sabha, the TRS had sought a referendum through the byelections, on its demand for a separate Telangana state. Rao retained his Karimnagar seat in the Lok Sabha, with a massively reduced margin of 15,765 votes against the two lakh in the 2006 byelection. A distraught Rao, accepting moral responsibility for the defeat, has resigned as party president.
While the Congress and the TDP, who were not very keen on the polls, sweated it out in the campaign, Rao and his men remained complacent. Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy of the Congress toured all the constituencies selling his development card. “Telangana people have blessed the development agenda and I rededicate myself to its development,” he said. In fact, Reddy is happier about the fall in the vote share of the TDP, the main rival in the state, than the drubbing of the TRS. (ఇంకా…)
Politics of Telangana Sentiment జూన్ 12, 2008
Posted by Telangana Utsav in Telangana, elections, politics.add a comment
Making sense of Telangana sentiment
By K Naresh Kumar
The struggle for a separate state of Telangana is entering its fifth decade next year even as the entire state waits to see whether it will become a reality or not. From the first ever agitation in 1969 demanding a separate status, the issue of Telangana has remained a mere punching bag in the hands of politicians over this period, who have exploited its emotional value and abandoned it when it suited them no more.
Surprise upsets apart, the May 29 by-elections in four Parliament and 17 Assembly constituencies seeking a popular mandate for Telangana has come out with quite a few remarkable trends. For one of the contenders to the throne in the yet-to-be formed state- the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) – this was its only reason to remain politically alive since its inception eight years ago.
The public, fatigued by too many elections thrust on them and also not too convinced anymore by the ‘abilities’ of TRS turned their backs on them. Almost. But suddenly with this verdict of theirs, the people of Telangana have wrenched the mantle of separate statehood from TRS and enabled the issue to attain a broad based status and to be treated as an issue by other political parties too, as one with potential.
Especially, the surprise winners – the Congress and the Telugu Desam Party – have now started talking that TRS may have been rejected but the Telangana sentiment is very much alive. While rumours abound that the battered TRS may seek a bail-out and shake hands with the Congress all over again, it remains to be seen whether the Congress decides to end this issue of creating Telangana once and for all and time it strategically for the forthcoming year’s Assembly election.
To understand the recently held elections and its interesting outcome, I have based this report on the news coverages of the May 29 by elections made by various Hyderabad based leading newspapers between May 1 and June 1, 2008- the day the results were declared. To keep the report current, the later developments too have been selectively included. The attempt here is not only to showcase the petty politicking of our leaders but also the ambiguity and confusion with which the media organisations bamboozle the public at large.
Though the subject would be hot till the 2009 elections, the attempt was to try and find out how the battle for Telangana unfolded this time around and whether there were any indications of a likely upset or anything contrary to it. The media may have been always wrong with their opinion polls and exit polls. I just wished this time they would be somewhere close to being accurate.
My findings make me remember the famous adage – success has many fathers, failure has none.
Especially, if one sees the gushing coverage the Congress has got after the election results. Every reporter wants it to be known that the party was focused; the leaders were working harder and the strategy of countering separatism with development worked. Especially the much amusing comment of Home Minister, K Jana Reddy, in Dr YSR’s cabinet – ‘by-elections are like Kargil war and the Telangana sentiment is like a thick fog through which they have to wade’. Battle of the bullet, what? (ఇంకా…)
