The ruling TRS’ 21st Foundation Celebrations on Wednesday have not only given a clear roadmap for the party aiming to retain power in the 2023 assembly polls, but also unveiled an agenda that it wants to take on the BJP at the Centre, with only two years left for the next Lok Sabha polls, experts feel.
Most of the resolutions being passed targeting the central government for “not doing enough” for the state is a pointer towards this direction, they aver.
The K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR)-led TRS has won two successive elections since 2014, when the young southern state came into existence and has set its eyes on a third term, although the BJP had sprang some electoral surprises in the recent past, including putting up a spirited show in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) polls in 2020 where it emerged as the second largest party after the ruling TRS, in the process bettering on its earlier performances. Also, the BJP won the Assembly bypolls in Dubbak and Huzurabad, prompting BJP supporters to cheer about a “saffron surge” in Telangana, with neighboring Karnataka being a BJP-ruled state in the south.
On Wednesday, the 13 resolutions which were debated and passed during the day-long celebrations have been taken as a prelude to the launch of the poll campaign for the 2023 assembly elections, experts pointed out. While TRS’ resolutions in its previous Foundation Day celebrations focused on welfare schemes and state development, for the first time this year they were a direct attack on the BJP for not doing enough for Telangana, they said.
The demand for abolition of GST on handloom textiles and refraining from levying taxes, resolution of Krishna river water dispute, setting up of Navodaya Vidyalayas and medical colleges in the state, paddy procurement, the recent bone of contention between the two rivals, establishment of Backward Caste Welfare Ministry in Union government — all these resolutions reflected that the BJP-ruled Center has failed to address the concerns of the newly formed state, they said. In their resolutions, the TRS also aimed to bring out the Centre’s alleged inefficiency in handling national issues related to price rise and concerns of dalit community as it demanded implementation of the state’s Dalitbandhu scheme across India, they said. The Dalitbandhu scheme envisages providing a one time capital assistance of Rs 10 lakh “per SC family for all SC eligible families as 100 per cent grant/subsidy to establish a suitable income generating scheme as per their choice (without bank loan linkage),” according to the state government.
A resolution to play a key role in national politics also indicates that the TRS would go beyond its geographical limits to stop BJP’s “divisive politics”, an issue that prominently figured in the deliberations on Wednesday, they added. All the 13 resolutions passed by the party have ramifications not just for Telangana but have found echoes in other parts of the country, which in a way again suggest that TRS under the leadership of KCR is looking at concerns beyond Telangana.
Overall, the TRS’ 21st Foundation day celebrations have clearly put the party brass and KCR in a commanding position for the upcoming state elections. It further manifested in KCR’s address to the 3,000-odd party delegates on Wednesday where he said various surveys commissioned by the party have shown “advantage TRS” in the 2023 polls, with the party likely to win 90 of the 119 seats.
Though it appears, TRS will go alone, but the party seems to be well prepared to counter the BJP over its alleged divisive politics in the state where Muslims have a considerable vote bank and influence. If KCR is to be believed, according to surveys to him have suggested that the social welfare schemes have benefited the lowest of economic strata conveying the image of the party as one that is not just people friendly but one that believes in an all inclusive development approach.
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