Baffling silences and secret pacts
From being hailed as the architect of Telangana state to presiding over his party’s back-to-back electoral rout, K. Chandrashekar Rao’s fall has been dramatic and swift. Not too long ago, the two-time chief minister had an aura of invincibility and even rebranded his Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) to reflect his national political ambitions.
With the party losing the assembly elections in November 2023 and then drawing a blank in the recent Lok Sabha elections, that was not to be. A spate of desertions has hit the BRS camp over the last few months with several legislators and senior leaders crossing over to the ruling Congress.
An intriguing consequence of this political setback is that KCR, as the BRS supremo is popularly known, is incommunicado. Once known for his eloquent public speeches and witty comebacks, he has neither been seen nor heard for months.
Confined to his farmhouse in Erravelli on the city outskirts, KCR is keeping himself away from party activity and generally refraining from making any statements. His silence has baffled an already demoralised party cadre and triggered speculation over a possible political deal with the BJP to fight the ruling Congress.
A spate of investigations into the damages to the Kaleshwaram irrigation project (a flagship scheme of the previous government), irregularities in the power sector and phone-tapping episodes during the BRS regime are other reasons for this major setback.
“He was also shattered by the arrest and imprisonment of his daughter Kavitha in the Delhi liquor policy case. His main concern is to secure her release. Any truck with the BJP will surely involve this factor,” said senior political analyst and author Ramesh Kandula.
After spending five months in Tihar jail for CBI and ED cases related to the Delhi excise policy scam, Kavitha was granted bail by the Supreme Court. The Congress described the development as the outcome of a secret understanding between the BRS and the BJP.
Telangana Congress working president Mukesh Goud claimed that the Enforcement Directorate facilitated bail following BRS leaders K.T. Rama Rao and T. Harish Rao’s alleged meetings with senior BJP leaders in Delhi. “It is the beginning of a merger process,” Goud said. “The two parties have struck a secret pact.”