THE SOUTH INDIA TIMES
Special Correspondent
Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi ruled out any truck with the KCR-led Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) in the future. The party MP from Wayanad, whose “Bharat Jodo” Yatra is passing through the state, has made a significant statement ruling out that his party will have no alliance whatsoever with the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti or now in its new avatar, Bharat Rashtra Party (BRP).
It is a bit premature to come to any definitive conclusion about how things will pan out because one has seen all kinds of unlikely alliances in the past.
Didn’t the BJP form an alliance with a rank anti-national leader like Mehbooba Mufti and her People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the most volatile and terror-torn Jammu and Kashmir? The very nature of the formation of Maha Vikas Aghadi in neighboring Maharashtra where the electorate had given a clear verdict to the pre-poll allies’ BJP and Shiv Sena, went against the grain of coalition dharma, but that is the changing nature of politics now. Sworn enemies like the Shiv Sena and Congress joined hands along with Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress, to keep the largest single party, the BJP out of the power equation.
How these unholy alliances unraveled is a subject for another debate.
Against that backdrop, one wonders how far the Congress leader of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, who is desperate to revive a party that is in ICU, can bring his party back in the reckoning with his Padayatra or Bharat Jodo Yatra.Speculation rose over the possible alliance between the TRS and Congress ever since the IPAC founder Prashant Kishore met the TRS founder president and state chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. That was when KCR wanted to hire services of the IPAC team for the upcoming assembly polls. Reports claimed one of the suggestions among many made or offered to the TRS chief was exploring a possible alliance with Congress. Even Prashant Kishor reportedly suggested to KCR to float a national party and is believed to have been involved in finalizing the name too.
Hence, Rahul Gandhi’s categorical statement that his party has no proposal whatsoever to have any sort of truck with the TRS as he slammed KCR with his sarcastic remark “he (KCR) can even go global.” Many political analysts as well as the party activists, including the PCC President Revanth Reddy, seem to have got a sigh of relief with their leader’s strong statement.
Confusion prevailed ever since the ‘alliance theory’ was making rounds in state politics. Party cadre was also quite upset with several ticket aspirants unsure of their future in case a seat-sharing situation arises, unlikely as it did seem. “There is no question of Congress having any alliance with TRS in the future,” Rahul Gandhi, who represents the Wayanad LS seat, said, quashing speculation that there might be an electoral understanding in the days to come. He categorically said that Congress is very clear about the alliances and that it was the TRS or BRS that was creating the confusion.
“If (Bihar CM) Nitish Kumar wants to have talks with BRS that it makes no concern to me. We have no problem with that. But we cannot have any understanding with a party that is identified with corruption, snatching lands from Dalits and tribals in the State, and destroying the education system. What we do is diametrically opposite to what the BRS does,” Rahul said when asked about the possibilities of alliances with regional parties at a news conference.In the same tone, he said KCR can float an international party if he so wishes and fight elections even in the US and China. After such sarcastic comments against a party that is aspiring to play a pivotal role in national politics, Rahul seems to have caused irreparable damage to KCR’s overall reputation, as one can see in KTR’s angry response on Twitter. The Telangana IT Minister dared Rahul Gandhi whom he referred to as a wannabe PM to first get elected from his constituency of Amethi.
