Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, AICC President Sonia Gandhi, Vice-President Rahul Gandhi and many other top honchos of the party have been suddenly descending on Telangana to take up no-holds barred campaign for the on-going elections which has undoubtedly become a do or die battle for political survival for the party in its own bastion.
The Prime Minister along with senior leaders of the party is addressing an election rally at Bhongir of Nalgonda district today, while the AICC President is scheduled to address a meeting at Andole of Medak district on Sunday. Sonia Gandhi has already participated in an election meeting recently in Karimnagar district. Rahul Gandhi on the other hand has addressed four election rallies in Nizamabad, Mahbubnagar, Warangal and Hyderabad.
Besides these star campaigners of the Congress, who’s who of the party’s central leaders like Jairam Ramesh, Digvijay Singh, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Vaylar Ravi have been camping in the state capital and also visiting various places in Telangana to supervise the party’s election campaign. The question why this sudden importance being bestowed on Telangana by the Congress bigwigs as never before has now become the hot topic of discussion not only in political circles but also among the electorate.
As one political analyst put it, the answer to this intriguing question is that the Congress High Command has realized that the party is threatened by an ignominious rout in the elections due to its own doing. It is pertinent to recall here that late Y S. Rajashekar Reddy in his own inimitable style has turned Andhra Pradesh as an impregnable fort for the Congress in 2004 and 2009 elections. But, the 2014 elections seem to have become the nemesis for the party in the wake of bifurcation of the State.
There is no denial of the fact that Sonia Gandhi agreed for the formation of a Telangana State with an eye on the 2014 elections to make Rahul Gandhi the Prime Minister of the country. She expected that by gifting Telangana, the party could garner required number of seats in the new state to enable the Congress-led UPA to come to power again even if the party fails to get the required number of seats in Seemandhra, as a fall out of the division of the state. In fact her confidence of securing the maximum number of seats stemmed from the confidence she had about TRS party merging with the Congress for gifting the separate state.
However the Congress party’s confidence and Sonia Gandhi’s plans went topsy turvy due to the change of heart of TRS President K. Chansrashekar Rao in the merger plan of his party with Congress. KCR virtually dumped the Congress by refusing the merger plan. The Congress which was very confident about pocketing maximum number of seats in Telangana for its gesture of gifting the new state is now forced to face a formidable challenge from not only its supposed ally TRS but also from the TDP, BJP and YSRCP. Even the MIM which was its ally for a long time has also distanced itself from it.
The Congress which ruled the roost in both Telangana and Seemandhra regions in a united state of Andhra Pradesh during 2004 and 2009 elections is forced to fight the poll battle on its own. As a matter of fact the Congress has become literally a sinking ship in the Seemandhra region and it was forced to offer the party tickets to new comers on a platter to contest the elections. In Telangana too the party had to mend for itself in order to face a formidable challenge from both TRS and TDP.
Faced with the threat of a complete rout in Seemandhra, the Congress is desperately trying to salvage its image at least in Telangana. Thus the elections now has become a do or die battle for the Congress. It has also become an uphill task for the party to face the opposition challenge in the absence of charismatic and capable leaders like late YSR to commander in the poll battle. Therefore the present elections has become a prestigious affair for the Congress and in order to ensure its political survival in the new state it has pressed into the campaign all its leaders, and how far it would succeed would be known in the coming few weeks. (NSS)