2023, the year of Telangana state elections is here and it has started with a spate of arrests in the run up to the state elections scheduled to be held before the end of this year. The 2023 Telangana legislative assembly election is scheduled to be held in or before December 2023 to elect all 119 members of the state’s Legislative Assembly.
Telangana Congress leaders were placed under house arrest by the police in Hyderabad on Monday, in anticipation of their planned protests over the problems faced by the village panchayat presidents (sarpanches) in the state. Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president A. Revanth Reddy, vice-president Mallu Ravi and other leaders were placed under house arrest. Police personnel were deployed outside the residence of Revanth Reddy in Jubilee Hills to prevent him from leaving for Hyderabad’s Indira Park, to lead a “peaceful” dharna. The state police department had earlier denied permission for the same.
A “sarpanch” is the head of the “panchayat” at the village level and together with other elected panchayat members, constitute gram panchayats and zilla panchayats. The sarpanch is the focal point of contact between government officers and the village community and retains power for five years.
In Telangana, sarpanches, who have mostly supported the ruling BRS (TRS earlier) party thus far, have been expressing concern over not receiving government funds for about a year. Many of them have come forward to submit their resignations, over their helplessness in discharging their duties at the village panchayat level, on account of a shortage of allocated funds.
The Congress party has said that it had been protesting to highlight the problems of 12,750 panchayats in Telangana. The state Congress leaders allege that the state government run by the BRS party, is misusing funds meant for panchayats, denying them their due share, thus affecting the development of villages who have up to this point, supported the BRS. State Congress president, Revanth Reddy had encouraged sarpanches across the state to assemble at the Congress-led dharna site to express their disappointment with the BRS government and its callous attitude in disbursement of funds rightfully meant for villages.
This round of house arrests of the state Congress party’s leaders, comes just two weeks after the previous December 14, 2022 house arrests, when Congress party leaders including party president, Revanth Reddy were placed under house arrest, when he called for a protest outside the Hyderabad City Commissioner’s office, over the arrest of five party workers from the office of the Congress party’s chief electoral strategist, Sunil Kanugolu, for allegedly posting derogatory comments on Chief Minister, K Chandrasekhar Rao.
In battleground Telangana, 2023 is a tough year for the incumbent Bharat Rasthra Samithi (BRS) party, led by K.Chandrashekar Rao (KCR). The BRS party formerly known as Telangana Rashtra Samiti party (TRS) has won two consecutive terms since the new state’s elections were held in 2014 and 2018. In the upcoming 2023 elections, the BRS party is under immense pressure to fight growing anti-incumbency after almost ten years in power as well as a strong opposition presence in the state, including the BJP which has seen significant growth in the state, a recently resurgent TDP party led by Chandrababu Naidu, a stubborn Congress party still in the fray inspite of infighting and other setbacks and the newly launched YSRTP party, led by Sharmila, sister of the current Andhra Pradesh chief minister and leader of the YSRCP party, YS Jagan Reddy.
The BRS party’s victory in the last two state elections as well as its national ambitions, have resulted in a confidence (some say, arrogance), that have alienated it from all other parties and previous allies.
The TRS/BRS party was founded on 27 April 2001 by Chandrasekhar Rao with a single-point agenda of creating a separate Telangana state with Hyderabad as its capital. It has been instrumental in carrying forth a sustained agitation for the granting of statehood for Telangana. Chandrasekhar Rao was a long-time member of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and remains a fan of the TDP’s founder and famous Telugu actor, N.Taraka Rama Rao (NTR) after whom he named his own son, the current Telangana Minister for Municipal Administration & Urban Development, Industries & Commerce, and Information Technology, K.Taraka Rama Rao.
Chandrasekar Rao (KCR) and his BRS party have had a colorful history of alliances. He and his party have been politically associated with the Congress, the TDP and the BJP.
Telangana state was carved out of the erstwhile larger state of united Andhra Pradesh in 2014, under the aegis of the then Congress party-led UPA 2 government at the centre, which agreed to Chandrasekar Rao and his TRS/BRS party’s long standing demand of a separate state for the Telugu speaking region of Telangana, distinct from the Telugu speaking region of Andhra Pradesh, claiming perceived/ alleged discrimination, negligence and differences in history and culture.
The BRS party won both the first and second elections of the new Telagana state in April-May 2014 and December 2018, respectively. The 2018 election saw the coming together of once arch enemies, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), the Indian National Congress (INC) and the Communist Party of India (CPI) which formed an opportunistic alliance for the first time. This unlikely, ideologically mismatched alliance, lost the elections to the BRS party. The TDP’s alliance with arch enemies, the Congress and the CPI, also had ramifications in the neighboring Telugu state of Andhra Pradesh, where Naidu’s ruling TDP party was in a shaky alliance with the BJP from 2014-2019. The TDP without an alliance with the BJP, fared poorly in the subsequent 2019 A.P state elections and lost to Jagan Reddy’s YSRCP party.
Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP is now hoping to revive its alliance with the BJP in both the Telugu states- Telangana goes to polls in Dec 2023 or slightly earlier and Andhra Pradesh is scheduled for June 2024 or earlier.
Chandrababu who held a sway over his state tried to position himself against PM Modi in 2019. Today, he is desperately crying and trying to find his feet on the ground.
In the first Telangana state elections of April-May 2014, the then TRS party (currently BRS party) contested state elections on its own without an alliance with the Congress-led UPA or the BJP-led NDA. It won a decisive madate from the people of the new state and emerged victorious in 63 of the 119 Assembly seats. KCR was sworn in as the first Chief Minister of Telangana.
KCR awaits the same fate of Chandrababu Naidu in the coming years if he goes overboard with his unabashed anti-Modism.
Probably, that is why he is toning it down saying ‘Modi is his best friend’.
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Will KCR Meet The Same Fate Of CBN?
2023, the year of Telangana state elections is here and it has started with a spate of arrests in the run up to the state elections scheduled to be held before the end of this year. The 2023 Telangana legislative assembly election is scheduled to be held in or before December 2023 to elect all 119 members of the state’s Legislative Assembly.
Telangana Congress leaders were placed under house arrest by the police in Hyderabad on Monday, in anticipation of their planned protests over the problems faced by the village panchayat presidents (sarpanches) in the state. Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president A. Revanth Reddy, vice-president Mallu Ravi and other leaders were placed under house arrest. Police personnel were deployed outside the residence of Revanth Reddy in Jubilee Hills to prevent him from leaving for Hyderabad’s Indira Park, to lead a “peaceful” dharna. The state police department had earlier denied permission for the same.
A “sarpanch” is the head of the “panchayat” at the village level and together with other elected panchayat members, constitute gram panchayats and zilla panchayats. The sarpanch is the focal point of contact between government officers and the village community and retains power for five years.
In Telangana, sarpanches, who have mostly supported the ruling BRS (TRS earlier) party thus far, have been expressing concern over not receiving government funds for about a year. Many of them have come forward to submit their resignations, over their helplessness in discharging their duties at the village panchayat level, on account of a shortage of allocated funds.
The Congress party has said that it had been protesting to highlight the problems of 12,750 panchayats in Telangana. The state Congress leaders allege that the state government run by the BRS party, is misusing funds meant for panchayats, denying them their due share, thus affecting the development of villages who have up to this point, supported the BRS. State Congress president, Revanth Reddy had encouraged sarpanches across the state to assemble at the Congress-led dharna site to express their disappointment with the BRS government and its callous attitude in disbursement of funds rightfully meant for villages.
This round of house arrests of the state Congress party’s leaders, comes just two weeks after the previous December 14, 2022 house arrests, when Congress party leaders including party president, Revanth Reddy were placed under house arrest, when he called for a protest outside the Hyderabad City Commissioner’s office, over the arrest of five party workers from the office of the Congress party’s chief electoral strategist, Sunil Kanugolu, for allegedly posting derogatory comments on Chief Minister, K Chandrasekhar Rao.
In battleground Telangana, 2023 is a tough year for the incumbent Bharat Rasthra Samithi (BRS) party, led by K.Chandrashekar Rao (KCR). The BRS party formerly known as Telangana Rashtra Samiti party (TRS) has won two consecutive terms since the new state’s elections were held in 2014 and 2018. In the upcoming 2023 elections, the BRS party is under immense pressure to fight growing anti-incumbency after almost ten years in power as well as a strong opposition presence in the state, including the BJP which has seen significant growth in the state, a recently resurgent TDP party led by Chandrababu Naidu, a stubborn Congress party still in the fray inspite of infighting and other setbacks and the newly launched YSRTP party, led by Sharmila, sister of the current Andhra Pradesh chief minister and leader of the YSRCP party, YS Jagan Reddy.
The BRS party’s victory in the last two state elections as well as its national ambitions, have resulted in a confidence (some say, arrogance), that have alienated it from all other parties and previous allies.
The TRS/BRS party was founded on 27 April 2001 by Chandrasekhar Rao with a single-point agenda of creating a separate Telangana state with Hyderabad as its capital. It has been instrumental in carrying forth a sustained agitation for the granting of statehood for Telangana. Chandrasekhar Rao was a long-time member of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and remains a fan of the TDP’s founder and famous Telugu actor, N.Taraka Rama Rao (NTR) after whom he named his own son, the current Telangana Minister for Municipal Administration & Urban Development, Industries & Commerce, and Information Technology, K.Taraka Rama Rao.
Chandrasekar Rao (KCR) and his BRS party have had a colorful history of alliances. He and his party have been politically associated with the Congress, the TDP and the BJP.
Telangana state was carved out of the erstwhile larger state of united Andhra Pradesh in 2014, under the aegis of the then Congress party-led UPA 2 government at the centre, which agreed to Chandrasekar Rao and his TRS/BRS party’s long standing demand of a separate state for the Telugu speaking region of Telangana, distinct from the Telugu speaking region of Andhra Pradesh, claiming perceived/ alleged discrimination, negligence and differences in history and culture.
The BRS party won both the first and second elections of the new Telagana state in April-May 2014 and December 2018, respectively. The 2018 election saw the coming together of once arch enemies, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), the Indian National Congress (INC) and the Communist Party of India (CPI) which formed an opportunistic alliance for the first time. This unlikely, ideologically mismatched alliance, lost the elections to the BRS party. The TDP’s alliance with arch enemies, the Congress and the CPI, also had ramifications in the neighboring Telugu state of Andhra Pradesh, where Naidu’s ruling TDP party was in a shaky alliance with the BJP from 2014-2019. The TDP without an alliance with the BJP, fared poorly in the subsequent 2019 A.P state elections and lost to Jagan Reddy’s YSRCP party.
Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP is now hoping to revive its alliance with the BJP in both the Telugu states- Telangana goes to polls in Dec 2023 or slightly earlier and Andhra Pradesh is scheduled for June 2024 or earlier.
Chandrababu who held a sway over his state tried to position himself against PM Modi in 2019. Today, he is desperately crying and trying to find his feet on the ground.
In the first Telangana state elections of April-May 2014, the then TRS party (currently BRS party) contested state elections on its own without an alliance with the Congress-led UPA or the BJP-led NDA. It won a decisive madate from the people of the new state and emerged victorious in 63 of the 119 Assembly seats. KCR was sworn in as the first Chief Minister of Telangana.
KCR awaits the same fate of Chandrababu Naidu in the coming years if he goes overboard with his unabashed anti-Modism.
Probably, that is why he is toning it down saying ‘Modi is his best friend’.
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