AP's 'battle of the betis' points to shift in Telangana dynamics

Politics in Andhra Pradesh just got doubly exciting. In what is being billed as a battle of the daughters, Sharmila (YS Rajasekhara Reddy’s daughter and Jaganmohan Reddy’s sister) and Kavitha (Telangana Rashtra Samiti president K Chandrasekhar Rao’s daughter) are  going head-to-head and lending their own flavour to the political rhetoric. Sample this. At a well-attended public meeting in Suryapet in Nalgonda district on Sunday, KCR asked the people of Telangana to reject both Chandranna (former Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu) and Rajanna (YSR).  He accused both of them of being anti-Telangana and charged YSR with looting the land, water and mineral resources and allotting them to his son and daughter. Sharmila responded by accusing KCR of making huge sums of money in the name of the statehood-for-Telangana campaign. She asked the TRS supremo if he would touch her feet and seek pardon if his charges were proven false. Denying that her father YSR had as Chief Minister  allotted the Bayyaram mines in Khammam to her and the Obulapuram mines in Anantapur to Jagan, Sharmila added the spice, a la Balaji Telefilms: “You too have a daughter. Will you tolerate it if she is accused of something she did not do?’’ [caption id=“attachment_539268” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Sharmila Reddy’s padayatra, during which she revived memories of YSR’s welfarist policies, was well-received even in Telangana.[/caption] That exhibition of “Rayalaseema arrogance’” was enough for Kavitha to enter the arena. She challenged Sharmila to a debate on the allegations of corruption surrounding YSR and Jagan. She then added: “It will then be known if my father will touch Sharmila’s feet or the people of Telangana will throttle her for such utterances.’’ For those who have followed Andhra Pradesh politics closely, the tu tu main main has come as a surprise. Because until now, KCR’s vitriol was reserved for the Telugu Desam and the Congress as he reckoned that the YSR Congress was essentially a Seemandhra party whose anti-Telangana credentials rendered it unpopular in the region. It was widely believed that there was a tacit understanding between the two parties to keep out of each other’s way. The Assembly byelection in Parkal in June changed that perception to an extent. In that byelection, Jagan’s candidate Konda Surekha lost to the TRS by just 1,500 votes;  the TRS realised it could ignore Jagan’s party only at its own peril. Second, the TRS has now become ambitious and aims to win 100 of the 119 Assembly seats in Telangana. This effectively means that it has shut the doors on any kind of official or clandestine alliance with any other party. Third, the TRS now realises that while it will attract a significant number of Congress deserters, many - particularly those from the Reddy community in Telangana -  will be drawn to the YSR Congress. KCR is more than aware that the money power of some of these Reddy leaders could play a decisive part in the elections. Already, the MIM has left the UPA fold and will bring some of the minorities vote to Jagan. In all the elections and byelections so far, the TRS has tasted electoral success by exploiting the emotional Telangana sentiment. But it is now wary of the Rajasekhara Reddy sentiment that is coming to the fore during the Sharmila padyatra, which has received a good response even in Telangana. While 9 out of 10 people in Telangana will still list statehood as their Number One demand, they also want health insurance, fee reimbursement, free power - all part of the welfare agenda that YSR had patented as a package to ensure his continuance in power. The TRS would be apprehensive that a cocktail of Reddy political power, this welfare agenda and a split in the Telangana vote between the TRS and the BJP will combine to help  Jagan make inroads into Telangana. Remember, despite YSR being perceived as having been the main stumbling block in the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh (and the creation of Telangana), the Telangana region returned 50 of the Congress candidates as MLAs in the 2009 Assembly elections. For the TRS to emerge victorious, it is important that it raises the pitch on the Telangana sentiment so high that nothing else is audible. What is also surprising is that neither Kavitha nor her father is attacking the YSR family over the issue of his having been  anti-Telangana alone. Instead, they have mounted a personal attack on their corruption, even suggesting that Jagan should be shifted out of Hyderabad central prison to a jail in Andhra “lest he sell away the prison land’’. This is an attempt to dismantle the YSR legacy, to ensure it is discredited. The YSR Congress is aware of its limited sway in Telangana. Its best bet would be to focus on seats in and around Hyderabad, where the Telangana sentiment is weaker compared to, say, in Warangal and Karimnagar. The problem for the TRS is that it knows that the patience of the people with KCR’s habit of shifting deadlines is wearing thin. The party has so far contested two Lok Sabha and Assembly elections - in 2004 and 2009 - on the plank of statehood for Telangana. In Suryapet, KCR spelt it out in black and white that 2014 would see much the same script. In all this, one can’t help but wonder if the Congress is playing a clever game. Is the decision to attack Jagan part of the mandate given to KCR during his 25-day stay in Delhi? The Congress hopes to gain by making the two strong parties in the two regions tear each other apart. Clearly, in the political theatre of Andhra Pradesh, the soundbites are not lacking in bite. One only hopes the actors do not bite off more than they can chew.