Kiran Reddy's 10 mistakes: Why his yet to be formed party won't succeed

Kiran Kumar Reddy Nallari, caretaker Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, will be biting off more than he can chew, if he is floating a political party to take on the ‘dissipated-yet-mighty’ Congress, a ‘strong’ Telugu Desam and a ‘galloping’ YSR Congress in Andhra Pradesh minus Telangana.

While the Telugu Desam Party feels that its strong support base remained unbridled, the YSR Congress is brimming with confidence harping on the numerous survey reports that placed it ahead of all rivals.

The Congress has its own tricks up its sleeve. It sent word for all the ministers of the erstwhile Kiran Kumar Reddy government, which just stepped down from office, for a meeting in Delhi on Tuesday.

Kiran Kumar Reddy, who began hectic parleys with all the six expelled Congress MPs from Lok Sabha in the last three days, apparently concluded that he should float a political party to espouse the cause of united Andhra Pradesh.

Kiran Kumar Reddy undoubtedly is a staunch votary of a united Andhra Pradesh, but he hardly made any effort to either impress or influence the Congress high command to retain the state intact.

Kiran’s ’lost’ ball finds itself outside the cricket ground, a game he always loved and played.

Kiran Reddy, who was an archetypal nowhere man when it came to leading from the front or making the rank and file of the party rally behind him during his 25-year-long political career in the Congress, emerged as an underdog in the race for the Chief Ministership in November 2010.

His predecessor K Rosaiah could not contain the Telangana agitation, which remained dormant during YS Rajasekhara Reddy’s regime. Kiran inherited the challenges emerging out of the agitation from Rosaiah’s time which eventually consolidated by the day during his own rule.

There is no denying that Kiran had too many ordeals to handle like dealing with the impudent Congress MP YS Jaganmohan Reddy, who eventually revolted and broke away with his faction, jeopardizing the very continuance of his government and the Teangana agitation that peaked during his regime.

Angered by the Congress high command for cold-shouldering his suggestion and going ahead with the carving out of a separate State, Kiran Reddy chose to stand up in defiance now.

Though several legislators and ministers from Seemandhra region used to sing paeans to him and glorify his leadership as long as he toed the line of the Congress high command, he found only a handful of MLAs (nine to be precise), including his Cabinet colleagues, to stand by him.

While the external factors are all too well known, a close observation of his acts of omission and commission expose at least 10 of his mistakes that pushed him to this asphyxiating situation.

1. He always stayed focused on remaining as the Chief Minister rather than containing the irritants and impressing the high command that he is strong enough to lead the party to yet another victory.

2. Kiran Kumar Reddy did not have a ‘deep throat’ in 10 Janpath and other power corridors in Delhi to collect the inside inputs on their moves

3. He turned out to be a stumbling block in the way of the Congress leadership’s move to announce a special package for Telangana.

4. He did not raise the banner of revolt on the day when the Congress high command came up with Telangana resolution on 30 July.

5. He could not decipher the jugglery of words of then Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who had said that an Assembly resolution was mandatory for bifurcation of the State.

6. Kiran Kumar Reddy was under the impression that a resolution rejecting the draft Bill would let the Parliament junk it and the matter could be put to rest once and for all. That is precisely the reason why he had the Assembly discuss the issue threadbare.

7. He also felt that the Parliamentary procedure to bifurcate the State would take longer time than expected and the political issues in elections would camouflage the demand for a separate State.

8. He began wooing and now decided to hire the services of the expelled Congress MPs, who still are at loggerheads with the top-brass in the Congress.

9. Kiran Reddy could not checkmate the dissident activity perpetrated by APCC president Botcha Satyanarayana and prevent desertions from the party towards YSR Congress

10. He never carried anybody along and did not have trust-worthy leaders to do anything for him at his beck and call and also failed to set up a powerful CMO that was always a beehive of activity during the regimes of N Chandrababu Naidu and YSR Reddy.

Congress general secretary and in-charge of AP affairs Digvijaya Singh on Monday said Kiran was always welcome back to the Congress fold, as he and his father remained loyal to the party for several decades.

But Kiran seems to stick to his guns and float the new party, though the number of supporters to bear his palanquin is dwindling.

The political observers have to wait for the third umpire to announce whether the cricketer Kiran Reddy would launch a party or stay back at the pavilion as a player who had retired hurt.