Even by Prime Minister Modi’s hectic travel standards, it is unlikely that he will visit the same state in a span of 3 days. So, when his itinerary was announced for his visits to Telangana on October 1st and 3rd, it certainly created excitement amongst the cadre and inquisitiveness among the media. And true to the expectations, Prime Minister Modi made some explosive revelations and announced some critical projects that are bound to change the nature of discourse in Telangana politics.
On October 3rd, Prime Minister Modi revealed that Chief Minister KCR had approached him, after BRS’s loss in GHMC elections in the year 2020, with an offer to join the NDA in exchange for support in the GHMC council. He has also asked the media to check out the dates to validate his claim (the dates do check out. The results were declared on December 5th, and KCR met Modi on Dec. 12th). This offer was rejected by the Prime Minister and the BJP chose to sit in the opposition.
Prime Minister Modi has also told us that KCR informed him that he plans to make KTR the CM and wanted Modi’s blessings for the same. The timing of this revelation also checks out because there were multiple leaks to the media in January 2021 that the coronation of KTR is right around the corner. The idea had to be dropped by KCR owing to severe resistance from within the party and his extended family too.
The Prime Minister’s revelations have to be seen in the context of the growing narrative in the state that the BRS and BJP are friends and not foes! The mind really boggles at how the Congress party was very successful in spreading this narrative. The chief reason being cited was that despite multiple interrogations by the ED, KCR’s daughter Kavitha has not been arrested yet in the now famous Delhi Liquor Scam. The ED chargesheet does talk about a “South Group” of which Kavitha is a part, that arranged for 100 crores in bribes in exchange for licenses. The BJP cadre was finding it very difficult to counter this argument. And around the same time, the popular and vociferous BJP President Bandi Sanjay Kumar was replaced – thus adding more fuel to the narrative that this was done at the behest of a BRS-BJP understanding!
The Prime Minister’s revelations have certainly come as a boost for the party cadre, but his announcements on October 1st in Telangana were no less significant and were equally narrative-setting in nature. Until the year 2021, Telangana was the highest turmeric-producing state in India. The people of Nizamabad district had a demand for nearly 15 years that a Turmeric board be set up in Nizamabad so that the turmeric farmers here get better opportunities and rates to sell Turmeric. There is this farmer who took a vow in the year 2011 that he will walk barefoot till the Turmeric Board is set up in Nizamabad. KCR’s daughter, Kavitha fought the 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Nizamabad promising them that she will bring the Turmeric board. She failed to do so (among her many failures) and she eventually lost the 2019 election to BJP’s Dharmapuri Arvind.
D. Arvind signed a bond paper to the people of Nizamabad that he would resign if he failed to bring the Turmeric Board and also a good MSP for Turmeric. Though the central government announced the setting up of a Spices Board regional office in Nizamabad, it didn’t cut any ice with the voters. As has been the trend with the Modi government, where long pending issues are resolved quickly, Prime Minister Modi has announced on October 1st, the setting up of the National Turmeric Board in Nizamabad. This took the BRS by surprise because they were all busy making jokes about how Arvind failed to get the Turmeric board and how his bond paper was now a joke. With this announcement, one of the key demands of thousands of farmers in Nizamabad stands fulfilled. In fact, the setting up of a Turmeric board in general has been a demand even in the states of Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. This is the first time in 36 years that a board is being set up specifically for a product.
The second major announcement was of setting up a Central Tribal University in Telangana. You may be wondering what is so major about setting up a university. This university was promised in the AP Reorganisation Act of 2014 bought by the UPA. Despite swift approvals from the Modi government, the BRS government delayed land acquisition. And yet BRS started shouting from the rooftops that it is the Modi government that is doing grave injustice to Telangana by not granting the university! After 9 years of dilly-dallying by the KCR government (nicely captured in this thread), the Central Tribal University has finally become a reality.
The Prime Minister had to make repeated mentions of the Congress party (both in his speeches and tweets) in these two days because it was important to remind people of the corrupt and inept Congress party. These steps were necessitated also because of both the stagnating fortunes of the BJP and the rise of the Congress in Telangana.
No one in Telangana was ready for the political bombshells or the administrative surprises. It is now up to the state BJP unit to take this message forward. Will these get converted to votes? Time will only tell!
