Telangana Chief Minister KCR going soft on Congress surprises all

Naveen S Garewal
Tribune News Service
Hyderabad, April 5

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao (KCR) has surprised all by suddenly changing his vitriolic references to the Congress leadership, including UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi.

He has always acknowledged her role in the formation of Telangana, but started attacking the Congress before assembly elections last year.

He also severed ties with the BJP and started pushing for a non-Congress, non-BJP government through his Federal Front.

KCR who attacked both the BJP and the Congress in his public speeches, accusing them both of letting down the country all through the state assembly elections in December 2018 and even until now has visibly changed his posturing.

In a rare interview to a national television channel, he used very harsh words for Prime Minister Narendra Modi while performing a summersault in his reference to the UPA chairperson calling her “very understanding and patient”.

KCR, who had close relations with the BJP and is often called the “B” team of prime minister, but he strategically distanced himself from the BJP taking on the saffron party as well as the Congress as his Federal Front stands against both the national parties.

After calling Congress president Rahul Gandhi a “buffoon” ahead of the state assembly elections, he changed his stand and said, “Rahul has been maturing well as a leader”.

The sudden change in the tone and tenor of KCR has set alarm bells ringing with political observers questioning the reason for this sudden change.

“The change from calling Sonia a devil and Rahul the biggest buffoon in the country to the language he used for them recently is not without any strategy,” a Hyderabad-based former governor and political analyst observed.

There is a sudden opinion that KCR, who is known to be a very shrewd politician, cannot be cosying up to the Congress without any reason.

A firm believer in astrology, a habit for which Prime Minister Modi too chided him at a recent rally, may have been told that the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and the Congress may need to work together in a post-poll scenario.

A day before KCR came out openly to draw distinction between the Congress and the BJP, TRS Nizamabad MP and chief minister’s daughter K. Kavitha emphatically ruled out any truck with the BJP after the elections, irrespective of the results.

At the same time KCR has stepped up his attack on the prime minister by questioning why opposition politicians were subjected to raids by enforcement directorate and Income Tax Department and no BJP leader had been questioned.

KCR was a minister in the UPA government from 2004 to 2009 is said to be making amends with the Congress, especially since Congress is part of the ‘Mahagathbandan’ initiated by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu.

Naidu and KCR have been hitting out publically, accusing each other of perpetuating injustice on the people of the other Telugu state.