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Telangana election results: Is Mahakutami a strong enough opposition to TRS in the Telangana Assembly Elections?

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DailyBiteDec 10, 2018 | 20:35

Telangana election results: Is Mahakutami a strong enough opposition to TRS in the Telangana Assembly Elections?

Two unlikely first time allies, a new party led by KCR's erstwhile mentor, an incidental Left, and infighting amongst the three: It remains to be seen if this combination will dethrone the Telangana Rashtra Samithi

With the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) gaining political traction playing on the Telangana sentiment, the four opposition parties —the Congress, the Telangana Jana Samiti (TJS), the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the Communist Party of India (CPI) have announced the formation of Mahakutami — the ‘Grand Alliance’— with the objective of defeating TRS.

For starters, this alliance is not as grand as it makes itself sound. A weak Congress that never quite revived itself in the region after former CM YS Rajasekhara Reddy's death, a fledgeling TJS that is more focused on blaming TRS than outlining its own agenda for the state's welfare, and the Left that barely has any presence in the region and state — if TRS wins, it will be more because the Mahakutami (or the BJP) is a much weaker alternative. 

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First-time allies, a fledgeling party and the Left: The Mahakutami of Telangana seems to weak an alternative to TRS (Photo: PTI)

Congress:

The Grand National party is heading the alliance. Till the polling on December 7, it had seemed to have no clarity on their chief ministerial candidate. Far too many contenders within the party, and then they have to appease their coalition partners — Congress-led alliance is plagued by its own internal politics to set up a strong front to politically counter the TRS.

Within the Congress, in the fray for the chief ministerial post are Nalamada Uttam Kumar Reddy, K Jana Reddy, Ponnala Lakshmaiah and Revantha Reddy.  

Kunduru Jana Reddy is a veteran Congress leader who an experience spanning over four decades in Andhra politics and administration. He was the most prominent cabinet minister in Congress government led by Y S Rajasekhara Reddy from 2004 to 2009 where he served as Minister for Home, Jails, Fire Service, Sainik Welfare, and Printing & Stationery. The 72-year-old has also been active in the Telangana movement and has led various delegations to All India Congress Committee (AICC) representing the Telangana statehood issue. When the TDP wave was riding high in Andhra Pradesh, Jana Reddy was instrumental in reviving the Congress in the Telangana region, and forming the campaign strategy against TDP, which cost the latter the 2004 elections.

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K Jana Reddy: Will the veteran Congressman be the Chief Minister? (Photo: Twitter)

Jana Reddy is now the opposition leader in Telangana state assembly from Congress.

Nalamada Uttam Kumar Reddy — the 56-year-old former fighter pilot from Indian Air Force, is the president of the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) and is considered a senior leader in the state and the party. He was also Kumar also the Controller of Security, Protocol, Administration, Foreign trips of the President at Rashtrapati Bhavan. Taking the mantle of the TPCC head in 2015, Reddy was handpicked by Rahul Gandhi and enjoys the confidence of former Congress president Sonia Gandhi — a privilege his predecessor and former TPCC president Ponnala Lakshmaiah did not have. Incidentally, Reddy has always sported a clean-shaven look — thanks to the discipline instilled in him during his days at the Indian Air Force. However, in 2016 he took a vow not to shave his beard till the Congress came to power in the state.

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Will Uttam Kumar Reddy shave his beard on December 11? Our guess is as good as yours (Photo: PTI)

Popularly called ‘Captain’ by the party cadre, Uttam Kumar Reddy will be contesting from his bastion — the Huzurnagar constituency — from where he has been elected as the MLA twice in the past.

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Ponnala Lakshmaiah was the first and former president of TPCC. The former Andhra Pradesh IT Minister fell out of the party high command’s favour barely a year after the state was formed. Lakshmaiah was removed owing to charges of lacklustre performance as a leader, and after senior leaders reportedly told the high command that he had failed to inspire the cadres and was unable to take on the TRS Government effectively on various issues.

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Ponnala Lakshmaiah: Disgraced, but not disowned by the Congress. (Photo: Twitter)

However, in a political boomerang, he has managed to wield his clout and got the ticket to contest from Jangaon constituency at the last minute. His candidature has caused a considerable flutter in the Mahakutami as the ticket was earlier given to Telangana Jana Samithi president — M Kodandaram.

The other contender from Congress is Revanth Reddy — a former TDP MLA who is on bail after being arrested in 2015 in a bribery case — who joined the Congress after being ousted by TDP in 2017. On September 20, 2018, Revanth Reddy was appointed as one of the three working presidents of TPCC.

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Revanth Reddy: Loyalties shifted from TDP to Congress, but jingling pockets back his clout (Photo: PTI)

However, it remains to be seen if the Congress will favour a tainted MLA over a long-time party worker.

Telangana Jana Samithi:

Formed as the political alternative in Telangana, the Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS) was officially launched on April 29, 2018. The TJS president — Prof M Kodandaram — interestingly, was considered the ideologue of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi and KCR’s co-mentor for over 15 years. A former professor of political science at Osmania University, Kodandaram was a civil rights activist and very actively involved in the Telangana movement for several years along with his mentor and Telangana ideologue — Prof Kothapalli Jayashankar, the former vice chancellor of Kakatiya University in Warangal.

However, differences cropped up between KCR and Kodandaram soon after Prof Jayashankar’s death in June 2011. In June 2012, Kodandaram refused to support the TRS candidate in the by-election to Mahbubnagar Assembly seat, which was won by a BJP candidate. Kodandaram had then told KCR that the TJAC would remain neutral and not side with any political party.

Nonetheless, staying true to the Telangana cause, Kodandaram continued to motivate students and masses to strive for a separate statehood. The four-decade long struggle for Telangana which peaked in 2009 called for bringing together people from all walks of life including farmers, traders, unions, students and politicians which would spearhead the movement. This was no mean feat and was accomplished by the Telangana Joint Action Committee (TJAC) under the leadership of Prof Kodandaram.

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Prof M Kodandaram: Will the former Political Science professor get his hands dirty in the bad world of politics? (Photo: Twitter)

Kodandaram has always maintained high ideological standards. For instance, soon after launching his party, he announced that he would not collect donations from big business establishments and corporate houses, and would accept donations only from small contractors and small business firms. He toured extensively through every district in the state to hear the grievances of the people and ensuring it was heard by the political leaders ahead of the statehood. However, once the statehood was achieved, Kodandaram was isolated and his ideology found no place in the effort to steer Telangana. In fact, it is said that KCR did not even invite Kodandaram to the swearing-in ceremony of his cabinet on June 2, 2014.

Ironically, his party seems to be suffering from the same fate at the hands of its coalition partner — Congress. While TJS had initially demanded to field candidates from 15 seats, it ended up with only eight. To add insult to injury, the ticket to contest from Jangaon constituency was allotted to the former TPCC president — Ponnala Lakshmaiah at the last minute. This seat originally allotted to Kodandaram — who had made all the arrangements to file nominations and start campaigning. While his party seems to be working along ethics and principles, it remains to be seen if that is converted to votes. As a professor of political science, will Kodandaram be able to demarcate his political ideas from the dirty politics that have to be played to grab the seats?

Telugu Desam Party (TDP):

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N Chandrababu Naidu: Ousted by the irate Telangana in 2014, will TDP salvage its political image in the upcoming polls?

TDP was founded by NT Rama Rao in 1982 on the platform of Telugu pride after the alleged mistreatment of local Congress leaders by the party high command in Delhi. Ironically, the Congress and TDP find themselves as allies for the first time ever, in the face of the common adversary — TRS — to ride over KCR’s pro-Telangana, anti-Naidu wave. In the last four years, 12 of TDP’s 15 MLAs have joined the TRS. While the party-president N Chandrababu Naidu has extensively campaigned in the state, it remains to be seen if his acumen translates to votes for the 13 TDP candidates. The 2018 assembly polls are being perceived as a litmus test to revive political fortunes for the TDP in Telangana.  Paradoxically, the Telangana-TDP president L Ramana is not contesting. This leaves the TDP with no recognizable faces in Telangana barring the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu

CPI

Another unhappy ally in the Mahakutami is the Communist Party of India. The CPI has been allocated a measly three seats to contest from. The Left parties have traditionally been strong in Khammam, Warangal and Nalgonda districts of Telangana.

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Chada Venkat Reddy: Will the Left get its rights this time? (Photo: PTI)

This time, the CPI will be contesting from Husnabad, Wyra and Bellampalli constituencies. CPI state secretary Chada Venkat Reddy would be contesting from Husnabad, Banoth Vijaya would be contesting from Wyra and Gunda Mallesh would be contesting from Bellampalli. Interestingly, Husnabad and Bellampalli were won by TRS in 2014.

Last updated: December 10, 2018 | 20:35
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