While all the eyes were focused on the storm triggered by the Congress decision to carve out Telangana State, another drama was being enacted on the sidelines silently. It was wooing of Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) by the Congress party for a possible merger to harvest the electoral dividends next year.
The ball was set rolling by Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh in the same breath as he announced the decision of the CWC. He praised TRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao to sky for his major role in Telangana struggle and hoped that his party will soon join the Congress as he had mentioned many times in the past. But yet another development seems to have undone the goodwill generated by Digvijay Singh. Piqued by the reports that another MP of TRS and film actor Vijayashanti had planned a coup and was going to ditch TRS and join the Congress on her own, KCR has cracked the whip. In a swift move late Wednesday night he suspended Vijayashanti from the party.
Vijayashanti was in the news of late for her differences with KCR on the issue of Medak seat. While Vijayashanti wanted to contest from Medak for the second time next year, KCR had his own eyes fixed on the same seat as he was finding prospect in his Mahbubnagar constituency dim. Speculation was rife that as the Congress had given her assurance of a ticket from Medak, Vijayashanti was planning to join the Congress. Now the State BJP was trying to woo her as she was earlier in the BJP and campaigned actively for the party in 1999 elections. But Vijayashanti was not keen in joining the BJP as the party seems to have been checkmated by the Congress by taking a decision in favour of Telangana.
By all indications, the BJP was in the throes of confusion about the next course of action as the Congress had robbed it of the only potential issue by deciding to carve out Telangana. Observers say that the BJP had already lost Andhra and Rayalaseema regions by taking a stand in favour of Telangana. As far as the merger of the TRS with the Congress is concerned, KCR has made it clear that he will take up the issue only after Parliament passes a Bill. Thereby he suggested that he still doesn’t have faith in the Congress. The issue of Vijayashanti also seems to have spoiled the bonhomie between the two parties.