Today is karnataka’s state election day, and a fight is about to erupt between Telangana and the southern Telugu states, with the two parties vying to take power from the current chief minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu.
The latest news is that the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) is fielding two candidates for local body elections, while the Jan Amsa party is running against the TRS. The TRS candidate is K. Rajagopalan, who is a member of the Telangana Legislative Assembly. The TRS is also hoping to retain the state’s only seat in the assembly, the one held by Naidu.
A few weeks back, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi was campaigning on a platform of having a new state assembly and holding elections, but the party didn’t seem to be doing too well at the local level. Rajagopalan, as the TRS candidate, is fielding the only Telangana party candidate for the state assembly. I guess he’s hoping that by coming up with a “narrative” that people can latch onto, he can make a positive impact.
I suppose that is the main reason why Telangana is in the news today. As part of the state election campaign, Telangana Rashtra Samithi has started making claims that they are fielding the only Telangana candidate for the state assembly. And while Rajyavardhan Reddy is the only Telangana candidate for the state elections, we are yet to hear that the Telangana government has agreed to field a Telangana candidate for the Assembly.
A similar story happened a few days back when the Telangana government said they would not field a Telangana candidate for the Assembly elections. Instead, they would go for a straight fight between the two parties and the party that won the elections. While the party that won the elections won the assembly race, the party that lost the elections didn’t win it at all.
To be fair to the Telangana government, they did say they would field a Telangana candidate as part of a compromise that didn’t involve fielding a Telangana candidate for the Assembly elections. But I wonder how far they actually will compromise themselves? Because if they are going to go for a compromise, they should at least have a plan for what it will take to win.
The Telangana Elections Commission’s election manifesto is one of the most extensive political documents I have ever seen. They even list the proposed changes that will affect the political landscape of the country and how they will affect the various regions. But in their manifesto they fail to mention that it isnt actually a party manifesto. In Telangana, we have the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) as the ruling party.
In Telangana, we have the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam AIADMK as the ruling party. This is the same AIADMK party that was in power till the mid-90s. Since then, the party has struggled to make any headway in the state.