Showdown was coming but TRS leaders had no inkling

A recent visit of Health Minister Eatala Rajender to a district to review the COVID treatment arrangements and his confession to some leaders that his hands were being tied with no support from the higher-ups perhaps indicated the developments that unfolded on Friday.

“Where is the money” was the irritant reply by the Minister when some doctors wanted better facilities, medicines and equipment to deal with the swarming patients. During the series of interviews with major newspapers in the following days, the Minister indicated that he was helpless and powerless, though not directly saying the same. Was the frustration an indication of the things to come?

But the developments were definitely shocking to TRS leaders, including Ministers and those considered close to Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao. The swift reaction from the Chief Minister for an inquiry into the land grabbing allegations have taken aback the TRS leaders who did not have an inkling of such an event unfolding just a few minutes after the municipal elections were over.

The letter by the farmers was written on Friday and the CM ordered an inquiry immediately, but the intention of the government to target the Minister was clear after the news channel owned by the CM’s family started airing the story, according to a leader. “The content quite clearly indicated that it was prepared in advance and aired minutes after the polling was over.”

The showdown between the CM and Mr. Rajender was being expected for the last two years but was postponed for politically-convenient reasons. There were a series of elections since 2019, including Parliament and local body elections, and any action by the CM would have created political turmoil affecting the party’s chances as Mr. Rajender is a popular leader among the Backward Castes, and also associated with the Telangana movement for the last two decades.

Nothing was hunky-dory between the Chief Minister and the Minister for over the last two years, particularly since the time of Mr. Rajender’s sensational comments in August 2019 that they (he meant those who fought for Telangana) were equal owners of the pink flag. In a meeting in Huzurabad, he said that the Cabinet berth was not an ‘alms’ to him but an honour bestowed on a BC leader.

It was kind of a challenge that the TRS leadership prefers to nip in the bud. It was widely expected that Mr. Rajender would be ousted in the cabinet expansion where TRS working president K.T. Rama Rao and Finance Minister T. Harish Rao were inducted. But the tactful CM did not even give an indication of dropping him.

Will this strong BC leader with a sizeable following rebel against the party that was associated since its formation? The developments clearly indicate that the party doesn’t want him and his continuation will only be a humiliation for him. The TRS old-timers and BC organisations have been backing him to rebel even as the BJP had been trying to lure him into its fold as it wants to build the party on the BC plank.

But the CM seems to have calculated all these risks and finally hit him at a time when the party has no elections to face for two years. A senior leader confessed that all the heat that Mr. Rajender might generate will eventually die down. Such showdowns are not new to TRS that has seen a few revolts earlier but could not maintain the steam.