The spin doctor's googly
(Views expressed are personal)
Kalvakuntala Chandrasekhar Rao has a weakness that only he
can boast of. The man revels in looking at the mirror and say: “I dare. I dare
you.”
If the 69-year-old he hates anything, it is being a pale
shadow of himself. No, he does not boxing in the dark. Nor pulling punches in
the air. He loves playing his lofty shots in a packed stadium. He has a
weakness for challenges.
Accepting a gauntlet thrown at him is something he
comfortably likes to ignore. It’s not his cup of tea. He’s not that type
anymore to be provoked into retaliation. Of course, there were times when his
bruised ego would make him dare the challenger only to beat a political
opponent to pulp at the hustings. Point proved, he moves on.
Now, the chief minister of Telangana has done something only
he could have imagined in his wildest dreams. If he’s got to be a nightmare for
his political opponent, he believes that only he should set the rules. He is convinced that he’s the one
to decide the turf. He is more than sure about how to make mincemeat of those
who bay for his blood. Not that he did not suffer bruisers on some such
encounters before but he regains his poise not to end up a battle fatality.
On August 21, 2023, KCR, the President of the Bharatiya
Rashtra Samithi (BRS) could have easily chided himself and said: “Stop giggling.”
That’s because KCR perhaps would have been doing just that as he released a
list of candidates from his party for the ensuing assembly elections in
Telangana. The fact that he announced the candidates list more than 100 days
before the polls are to be held is noteworthy.
It was on December 7, 2018 that the assembly polls were held
in Telangana. Going by the presumption that the polling date would be the same
this time, it means that he announced his party nominees 109 days in advance. Out
of the 119 seats, he announced the names for 115 seats. He dropped seven
sitting legislators.
KCR is challenged by his own weakness for springing a
surprise. When he had a full nine more months to complete his term as chief minister
after the newly formed Telangana state got its first elected government in
2014, his government resigned. The
Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) as it was then called, did not complete its first
five year term only because the independent thinking KCR who calls the shots in
the party had a strategic reason. He was averse to the Lok Sabha polls and
assembly polls being held simultaneously and therefore got the assembly polls
advanced. The Lok Sabha polls were held in April 2019.
Is KCR crafty? Call him a craftsman. A politician who knows
his tools.
Is he wily? Call him a willing slave to his own fancies.
Is it a folly to announce the names of his party nominees
when elections are, of course, round the corner, but not in sight as the
Election Commission is yet to issue a notification for the polls?
What can the possible repercussions be?
Disappointed ticket-seekers may well go against the party.
Dropped legislators will have an axe to grind (if they have
not been placated already with some position in the future).
Rival political parties can harvest the disenchantment in
the ruling party and exploit it to woo leaders and cadre whose dreams may have
fallen flat.
From the way he spoke at the press conference that he
addressed on August 21, the battle-hardened politician who has been in public
life for more than 40 years, thinks it is a cakewalk for him to form the government
for the third time in a row.
Having led the movement for a separate Telangana state which
became a reality in 2014, KCR who has served as chief minister since then, has
now thrown a challenge at the rival parties, the Congress and the BJP mainly to
evolve their own strategies to counter his moves.
The game is wide open.
KCR has a weakness.
A weakness for
success.
He will give it all what it takes to earn his own praise for
himself.
