Will Telangana give KCR 16 seats for a shot at Centre?

He hopes the people would heed his call for presidential format voting in the 17 seats at stake in Telangana.

It takes two to play the 'good cop, bad cop' game, unless you are the chief minister of Telangana, Kalvakuntla Chandrasekhara Rao (KCR), who personifies and switches between, some argue by design, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
A master political strategist, he could foresee that some unpredictable event could shift the national narrative before the general elections in India and to protect his home turf, called for early elections in his State, and won. If he played the card of Telangana pride to take his Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) to a landslide victory in the assembly elections, for the 2019 polls, he has thrown the idea of a 'Federal Front', a non-BJP, non-Congress alliance of regional parties that he would bring together after the elections.
"Both the national parties, the BJP and Congress, have failed us. In 2019, a group of regional parties will rise to the occasion and form a government," says Rao in various election meetings, hoping the people would heed his call for a presidential format voting in the 17 seats at stake in Telangana, India's youngest state formed after bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh in 2014.
In this, Rao is executing a template invented by Prime Minister Narendra Modi - asking people to vote without considering the local candidate standing for elections in their constituency, and instead, vote en masse for the leader. "Give me 16 seats, and one for my friend and ally, Asaduddin Owaisi," he exhorts voters, hoping the magic of December last year can be repeated.
The Congress party in Telangana, still nursing wounds after the drubbing of December polls, is hoping to bring the attention of the electorate to local and national issues, and pooh-poohing the TRS argument that a small party fighting for 16 seats can matter at the national level.
"The Congress is fighting against two dictators, both having no respect for democracy, dissent, minorities or decorum," said Capt Uttam Kumar Reddy, fighter pilot of the Indian Air Force turned politician, who heads the Telangana State Congress. "One is Modi, whom we will dislodge at the Centre and the other is KCR, who is Modi's cahoot in Telangana. People, especially the poor, the farmers, youth, Muslims and other religious minorities, women and Dalits, who have all lost their rights, and dignity, under Modi and KCR, are gearing to vote back the Congress to power."
Capt Reddy, who was one of only 19 Congress leaders to win the State elections, is now contesting for India's lower house in parliament, Lok Sabha, from Nalgonda.
"KCR is implementing the Congress-mukt (freed of) decree of Modi. He forges a partnership with the Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen led by Owaisi, but everyone, especially Muslims know he is all set to join Modi. It is the betrayed Muslim voters who will bring down the dream of KCR to win all 16 seats here," said Capt Reddy.
The Congress is counting on not only the Muslims but also farmers to turn against the TRS. In Nizamabad, over 150 irate farmers have decided to contest against K Kavita, Rao's charismatic daughter, who is the current MP of the constituency.
The TRS lost elections for three members of the Legislative Council a week ago to the Congress, another troubling sign for the ruling party, argue Congress leaders.
However, off the record, most Congress and BJP leaders concede that they have little answer to either the charisma and appeal Rao brings to the campaign, nor the efficient formidable electoral machine the TRS party has been transformed into under the leadership of his son KTR, who as working president, is making sure every voter segment is reminded of the benefits they have received.
Across different constituencies, individual candidates are spending between Rs400 million to over Rs1 billion, as against the maximum spending limit of Rs7.5 million.
Konda Vishweshwar Reddy, a sitting MP of TRS from Chevella, who has now shifted to Congress, is hoping his exceptional credentials as a US patents-holding MP and as a former EO of companies such as Wipro and General Electrical, will give him an edge, especially with the urban voters of Hyderabad.
"The educated people, especially the hi-tech city crowd, looks at election day as a holiday and will plan a vacation combining the weekend rather than vote. We could bring in a big change if urban voters go beyond the 50 odd per cent voting percentage," said Anindith Reddy, an F4 racing champion and son of Vishweshwar Reddy, who is trying to reach out to urbanites to turn up in bigger numbers to vote.
"My father was honoured as one of the top performing parliamentarians of the current tenure and is respected by everyone for having stood for and fighting for the people. He showcased the urgency needed to finish both irrigation and drinking water projects, skill development programmes for youth and bringing in global investments to create jobs. He is called the educated people's representative. We hope to win but the key would be young educated people turning to vote on April 11."
Elsewhere, BJP veteran G Kishan Reddy hopes to win the traditional party stronghold of Secunderabad, whereas the TRS and Congress are locked in a tight fight in Malkajgiri, India's largest parliamentary constituency, with a total voter base of over 3.2 million people.
In Hyderabad, Owaisi is most likely to emerge victorious again. In Khammam, where TRS is the weakest, the party hopes the defection of several opposition leaders will give it the win, but the Congress is betting on feisty warhorse Renuka Chowdary. In Bhongir and Mahbubabad too, the Congress candidates are making a fight of it.
In the end, whether the TRS chief will play a role at the Centre or not will depend on the scale of victory PMNarendra Modi registers, but in Telangana, the TRS is quite likely to zoom to a big win again.
Sriram Karri is a columnist and a political analyst based in Hyderabad

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