Can KCR sell recalibrated T-Sentiment in national gallery against BJP ahead of 2023 polls?

TRS supremo K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) is understood to have been recalibrating the regional sentiment to target the BJP as he did with his erstwhile state-rivals, writes ETV Bharat's G Ravi Kiran.

Hyderabad: TRS supremo and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, popularly known as KCR, formed his national Party amid rising speculation that he (KCR) should opt for an alternative political agenda to stay relevant in his home State, ahead of 2023 Assembly polls, as his perennial weapon - Telangana sentiment - would not work for his party in its new avatar.

Yet, in his bid for a third term, KCR seems to have recalibrated the T-sentiment in order to target his immediate rival BJP. It is well known how the TRS chief resorted to Andhra-bashing to play to the masses, roused Telangana regional sentiment from its dying moments, built up an agitation, took credit for separate statehood and went on to win two Assembly elections - 2014 and 2018. All through this, scathing attack on Andhraites was a major ingredient of the T sentiment that pulled crowds to KCR's election speeches.

Andhra-bashing in the name of T sentiment may have lost its currency yet KCR going to any election without the weapon of sentiment is unimaginable. In the past two decades, KCR has become synonymous with Telangana's regional sentiment. In fact, he made sure all other political parties and even his staunch critics fall in line and play to the sentiment in order to get public attention. When it comes to T-sentiment, once KCR sneezes, the rest of Telangana catches cold.

In 2023 polls, KCR seems bent on using this formidable T-sentiment against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has emerged as a bigger threat to his bid for the next consecutive term. KCR, who once portrayed Andhraites as enemies of Telangana, is now branding Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the numero uno enemy. "We have given hundreds of memoranda to the Centre in the last eight years to decide the share of Telangana in Krishna river waters, so that TS could construct the project. But, there is no response from the Centre. Today, Prime Minister is our enemy,” KCR had declared.

The TRS boss, in his recent visits for rallying the country's opposition, has made outright attacks on the BJP and gave a call for 'BJP Mukt Bharat' (BJP-free India). During his visit to Bihar, KCR met CM Nitish Kumar and later said at a joint media conference, “Lot of discussions have taken place today and we have made consensus on several issues. We have decided to throw BJP out of power as no work has been done in the past eight years. We will make all possible attempts to unite the opposition in the country with the slogan of BJP Mukt Bharat.”

As expected, the two major national parties - ruling saffron and the grand-old-party-Congress, have dismissed KCR's Bharat Rashtra Samithi as a mere political gimmick to mislead the public ahead of the next year's Assembly election. However, political observers beg to differ and see it as a clean trick up KCR's sleeves to turn the tables on his rivals.

Also, the TRS leaders have refrained from targeting Andhra Pradesh while slamming both the national parties in line with their party supremo. They said the underlying theme of their new national party will be to highlight the alleged discrimination by the BJP-led Centre against the people of Telangana. Apparently, by raising his rhetoric nationally with the newly launched BRS, KCR appears to be redirecting his time-tested weapon - T-sentiment - more at the BJP than any other rival.

In the past two years, the BJP emerged from winning just one seat in Telangana Assembly polls in 2018 to become a major contender for power now by posting significant victories in the elections to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) and byelections to Dubbaka and Huzurabad.

Battle lines have been drawn between KCR and BJP ever since the saffron party's national executive was held in Hyderabad which was attended by the PM Modi earlier in July. Responding to Home Minister Amit Shah's call to throw the KCR family out of power, BJP State president Bandi Sanjay's Praja Sangrama Yatra has kept up momentum in the BJP offensive.

Amid this mounting challenge from the saffron brigade, KCR has now created a new avatar out of Telangana sentiment, which is to blame the BJP regime at the Centre for all the immediate problems of the State and for the Country, say political pundits. Behind his new slogan of 'Bangaru Bharat' (Golden India), the TRS chief is aiming to project the BJP as the immediate threat to 'Bangaru Telangana' (Golden Telangana).

The TRS chief may be bringing to the fore a new idea of 'national sentiment' through the BRS party, but the fact remains that the underlying T-sentiment is being pressed into service yet again in his bid to stop the BJP on its tracks in the State. Can the Lotus brigade withstand the new gamble of KCR or not, only time can tell.