The stunning victory of the Congress party in the Karnataka Assembly elections has made the principal parties in Telangana — the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) — make course correction in the run up to the year-end elections to the Telangana Assembly.
The outcome has for sure derailed the dreams of the BJP to come to power in Telangana while the Congress having realised the futility of infighting and groupism is now determined to put up a united face till the Assembly elections. The BRS on the other hand now claims its fight will be directly with the Congress and not the BJP.
BJP leaders, wishing anonymity, said the Karnataka outcome will have ripple effect on the party here. “We did not anticipate such a humiliating defeat although we had a hunch about losing Karnataka,” a key functionary of the Telangana BJP remarked.
The leader said the exercise of drawing leaders of the other political parties in to the BJP fold will take a beating. “Suspended BRS leaders like Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy and Jupally Krishna Rao had asked us to wait for the outcome of Karnataka results. Now, it looks unlikely that they will take a decision to sail with us. Other leaders waiting for an opportunity too will now delay their decision,” it was pointed out.
But, the BJP is not losing hopes and feels that taking the Hindutva line more vigorously might fetch them votes. “The Hindu Ekta Yatra in Karimnagar is part of our strategy to cement the majority vote for the BJP,” the leader pointed out. Central leadership will now fully focus on Telangana and make a determined bid to wrest the State is what the State BJP leaders assert.
For the Congress, the victory in Karnataka has come as a booster dose but the leaders themselves are categorical in maintaining that unless the groupism, infighting and one-upmanship is buried the party cannot hope to win the elections.
A top Congress leader said that AICC in-charge of Telangana Manikrao Thakre had impressed up on the leaders to follow the Karnataka model where the CM candidate was not named in advance. “This move has benefitted the party,” the leader said pointing out that poll strategist Sunil Kanugolu, who was the mastermind behind the hard hitting campaign of the Congress in the elections, will help the Telangana Congress too.
In the next few weeks the party plans to hold a BC, women and farmers meetings. The party is drafting separate declarations for the three sections, party sources said.
Karnataka results for the BRS leaders has apparently led to the realisation that the real fight will be with the Congress. A senior BRS leader felt the thrashing in Karnataka has taken the wind out of the BJP ambitions. The leader maintained that there will be no change in its targeting of the Centre on issues and the party is all set to face the Assembly elections.
While the BRS has nothing to lose because of the poll outcome in the neighbouring State, but it obviously has made the two Opposition parties Congress and the BJP to redraw their strategies for the year-end elections.
