The partnership of TRS and the AIMIM in the Mayor election, where the latter supported the TRS candidates for both the Mayor and Deputy Mayor posts, has sent a strong signal to the BJP that Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao was not ready to be cowed down by the ‘unholy’ alliance criticism.
The well thought out strategy was loaded with several political statements by the TRS, importantly sending a message that it was not afraid of the MIM ‘appeasement’ charges constantly being levelled by the BJP. These allegations charged up the atmosphere in Telangana recently delivering electoral success to the BJP. At the same time, the Chief Minister was careful enough to minimise the criticism by not selecting a minority candidate as Deputy Mayor like the 2016 GHMC elections when Baba Fasiuddin of the TRS was chosen.
By opting for a candidate from the Backward Classes, KCR has also kept the BJP in check as it was strongly building its base on the BC plank. Initially, sources said, KCR favoured a candidate from the Reddy community for the top post as it wanted to offer the Deputy Mayor post to the MIM. Khairatabad Corporator P. Vijaya Redy and Tarnaka Corporator Mothe Srilatha Reddy were the two choices. The offer to MIM was open till Wednesday evening and once it refused to take the offer but assured unconditional support, the Chief Minister decided to change his strategy preferring Gadwal Vijaya Lakshmi, a candidate from the Backward Classes.
Had the MIM taken the Deputy Mayor post offer, perhaps the choice of Mayor candidate would have been a bit more interesting. Khairatabad Corporator P. Vijaya Reddy, daughter of P. Janardhan Reddy, was not willing to settle anything less than the Mayoral post. The party decided to pick Srilatha Reddy as the Deputy Mayor given her husband Mothe Shobhan Reddy’s long association with the TRS.
Selecting two women for the top posts the CM also avoided the possible friction in the functioning. A male Deputy Mayor would have been more dominant, thus leading to friction in the administration, a party leader opined.
Elections far away
The decision to take on the BJP head on despite the recent electoral setbacks was apparently taken as the elections to both Assembly and the Parliament, where the emotions on religious divide may run high, are three years away. There is no immediate political threat from the BJP’s criticism.
Since the AIMIM-TRS alliance has reaped benefits in the last six years with the ruling party benefiting enormously, the TRS party also feels it would benefit from the same in the Graduate MLC elections, Nagarjunasagar bypoll and the elections to Khammam and Warangal municipal corporations. “At least the alliance will not harm the TRS.”
Party leaders also feel the Hindu-Muslim plank may not really impact the immediate elections and negate the TRS positivity in favour of the BJP unlike the GHMC elections. The issues in these elections cannot be emotive as the minority voters would be minimal.
