Third Front Contours

(Somashekhar Ganta)
Hyderabad: The news that BRS chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao is the brain behind the Opposition letter bomb to PM on Manish Sisodia’s arrest is a clear pointer to the emerging contours of a Third Front. The Congress, from the beginning, was lukewarm to the idea of a combined opposition to fight Modi in 2024, where its predominance is compromised. Two poles of Opposition – one led by Rahul Gandhi with Stalin, Nitish, and Kumaraswamy keeping company and the other, a motley crowd of opportunists, fence-sitters, and also-rans seems imminent. With three States in its kitty, the Congress is the legitimate face of Opposition and the one likely to garner maximum traction in the crowded field of Opposition politics.
Opposition politicians such as KCR, Sharad Pawar, and Farooq Abdullah, know that
age is not on their side and their time is running out. In desperation, they are trying to be in reckoning hoping to be either kingmakers or Kings as consensus candidates in the fashion of a Deve Gowda or I.K Gujral. Being relatively young, Rahul and Kejriwal will fight it out to occupy the coveted position of a challenger to Modi.
As the election date nears, the pressure on the fence sitters to desert the third front camp and join Rahul Gandhi increases, leaving the Telangana Patriarch high and dry to play second fiddle to Kejriwal. Congress, with its vast experience in attracting coalition partners, can be expected to rally the support of DMK, JDS, JD(U), RJD, NCP, Samajwadi, Shiv Sena-UBT, and maybe, even TMC and BSP. Rahul Gandhi and Kejriwal are both in their early fifties and hence can live to fight another day, but nearing 70, the Telangana titan can count his dwindling days in National Politics, unless an unseen opportunity suddenly emerges.
It is history that the late Jaiprakash Narayan was in his seventies when he launched his ‘Total Revolution’ against Indira Gandhi’s Emergency resulting in the unprecedented victory of the Janata Party in 1977. Mass movements are essential vehicles for preparing the ground for a subsequent ride to the power of Political parties aligned with those movements.
The rise of AAP and Kejriwal’s catapult to power first in Delhi and later in Punjab was the outcome of the ‘India Against Corruption Movement led by Anna Hazare. The Emergency and its excesses were the trigger and became an emotive issue under the selfless leadership of Jaiprakash Narayan. Likewise, the unbridled corruption that engulfed the UPA 2 Government – the 2G Spectrum, Coal, and other big-ticket scams – provided a congenial environment for the launch of an anti-corruption movement. The BJP and Modi were the principal beneficiaries of the ‘India against Corruption’ movement and the APP, much against the wishes of several founding members of the movement found an opportunity and grabbed it.
True, KCR, has selected an emotive issue, Farmer’s distress to launch his tirade against the Modi Government and rightly created a platform – BRS, to take forward his agenda. He has the right credentials too, having successfully captained the Telangana Movement. However, where is the sustained movement essential to mobilize public opinion in his favor and galvanize the huge multitude of farmers constituting 60% of the Population in India? There are no shortcuts to power, he has to slog in the sweltering heat of the dusty plains of hinterland India.
Having invested huge political capital in his BRS, he has no option but to move forward irrespective of the outcome in the 2024 National Elections, by working assiduously to create a massive vote bank of farmers cutting across regional, caste, language, and creed barriers. However, if the launch of the BRS is just a ploy to play an opportunistic king-maker role or simply a tactic to make way for his son KTR to assume the mantle of chief ministership in Telangana, then it’s anybody’s guess regarding KCR’s future. KTR is slowly emerging from under the shadows of his father and is now in his own right. He is polished, energetic, and good with words in all three languages of English, Telugu, and Hindi. His acceptance rate has improved by his flourishing image as an industry-friendly performer. To that extent, there seems to be no vacancy for KCR in Telangana and in case he is forced to retreat from National Politics due to ignominious results at the hustings next year, it will invariably be VRS for his BRS.