Doing Justice to its name, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi which had fought for the special statehood for Telangana had achieved the long-awaited dream, and Telangana was carved out of the combined Andhra Pradesh. The fight the party made had worked in a big way for the TRS.
In the inaugural elections in Telangana after the state was formed, TRS recorded a landslide victory, and the grand old parties like Congress, Telugu Desam Party were crushed. The Telangana sentiment had worked there, taking TRS to a grand victory. In many regions, the party had made a clean sweep.
The political observers and critics said that the sentiment had worked for the 2014 elections and the same sentiment will not work again. But TRS Founder Chief Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao had proved everyone wrong and played the sentiment card at the right time.
For the 2018 elections, Telugu Desam Party, Congress, and a few other parties have formed a grand alliance for the elections. Everyone opined that the grand alliance would either win or give a tough fight in the elections.
KCR, the Chanakya of politics had once again brought the Telangana sentiment into the picture and highlighted how the Andhra leaders had done injustice for the state. Now the same Andhra leaders and other leaders are coming for the elections. If you make them win the polls, then we will have to face the old days again, he said.
Telangana voters have voted for the party that had fought for statehood and the alliance suffered a humiliating defeat. The experts feel that KCR might use the Telangana sentiment for one time as a Cabinet Minister’s comments created a space for this.
Amid the ongoing controversy on the Andhra Pradesh capital row, Minister Botsa Satyanarayana had created yet another controversy by saying that Hyderabad is the capital for the state till 2014 as granted by the provisions of the AP division bill.
While the TDP leaders are lashing out at Botsa for his comments, experts feel that KCR might use the sentiment and can get votes in the coming future. If this happens, then KCR might enjoy the fruits of the sentiment for a third consecutive term.
