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Tuesday 4 December 2018

ABC of Telangana assembly election


Telangana witnesses BJP, Congress, AIMIM, TDP and TRS slugging it out over who are A, B and C teams for the December 7 assembly election.

Rahul Gandhi has called TRS as B team and AIMIM as C team of the BJP in Telangana. File photo: PTI

HIGHLIGHTS

  • Rahul Gandhi alleges that TRS and AIMIM are B teams of BJP
  • Narendra Modi accuses Telangana caretaker CM KCR of doing apprenticeship under Congress
  • KCR and AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi allege that Congress is B team of Hindutva
Telangana, which goes to polls on December 7, presents a different picture from the other four states facing elections this season. The most unique flavour perhaps of Telangana is that all the rival parties are calling each other as 'B Team' of the other party.
KCR's Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Lok Sabha MP Asaduddin Owaisi's All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) and Congress-led alliance are the four main players in the state.
The Congress has tied up with Andhra Pradesh caretaker Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu-led Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS).
Interestingly, all the four are casting aspersions at each other and the Congress and the BJP are accusing the AIMIM and the TRS of being B teams in the state's political battle.
The AIMIM is considered close to the ruling TRS. On September 6, the day Telangana assembly was dissolved, the caretaker chief minister described AIMIM as a "friendly party".
Returning the compliment, Owaisi went on record to state that TRS has a very good chance of coming back to power and KCR becoming the CM again.
This has given ammunition both to the BJP and the Congress to hit out at KCR and Owaisi.
Rahul Gandhi
While addressing an election rally last week, Congress president Rahul Gandhi said TRS is not Telangana Rashtra Samiti but it is Telangana Rashtriya Sangh Parivar. "It's a B team of the RSS and BJP," he told the people in Kosgi on November 28.
Rahul Gandhi alleged that KCR had come to the aid of Prime Minister Narendra Modi whenever the Congress fought the BJP in Parliament, whether it was on the now-scrapped land acquisition law or the no-confidence motion.
Rahul Gandhi asked the voters to think if they had ever heard KCR attacking Narendra Modi.
Rahul Gandhi came down heavily on KCR for his TRS having an electoral understanding with AIMIM.
Today (December 3), Rahul Gandhi tweeted, "TRS is the BJP's 'B' team & KCR operates as Mr Modi's Telangana Rubber Stamp. Owaisi's AIMIM is the BJP's 'C' team whose role is to split the anti-BJP and anti-KCR vote."
He further said, "Great people of Telangana, Modi, KCR and Owaisi are one. They speak in twisted tongues. Do not be fooled by them!"
Narendra Modi
Prime Minister Narendra Modi too alleged that KCR was playing a "friendly match" with the Congress in the assembly election.
Narendra Modi said KCR was a Union minister in the UPA government which was remote-controlled by "Madam (Sonia Gandhi)". KCR's entire education was in the Congress and those who taught him have a PhD in it, Narendra Modi said in Nizamabad.
He further alleged that KCR was an apprentice of former Congress president and Rahul Gandhi's mother Sonia Gandhi.
Asaduddin Owaisi
Responding to Rahul Gandhi's charge that the AIMIM was the 'C team' of the BJP and was only working to split the non-BJP and non-TRS votes, Asaduddin Owaisi called the Congress the B team of Hindutva.
Taking a swipe at Rahul Gandhi's claim that he is a 'janeudhari' (sacred thread-wearing) Brahmin, Owaisi said the janeudhari will always think he is Number 1 and the rest are impure Mlecchas.
K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR)
Replying to Rahul Gandhi's allegation that his TRS was BJP's B team, KCR described the Congress president as the "biggest buffoon" in the country. While addressing a press conference he said the whole country has seen how Rahul Gandhi went and hugged Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Parliament and winked.
"Whether that Rahul Gandhi has intelligence or not, God has given intelligence or not, he speaks like a joker," KCR alleged.
Chandrababu Naidu
The Andhra Pradesh chief minister also hinted at the political proximity between the TRS and AIMIM.
He said voting for the TRS and the AIMIM was akin to voting for the BJP, indicating that the latter was the B team of the ruling party.
With the Congress, BJP, TRS and AIMIM hitting out at each other, the Telangana voters must be having a gala time.
Telangana is the only southern state going to polls while Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh are in the cow-belt area and Mizoram is in the Northeast.
Moreover, Telangana is the youngest of the 29 states of India and is facing assembly election for only the second time while other four states have gone to polls a number of times. Its first election was in 2014.
Had Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) not dissolved the house prematurely, assembly election in Telangana would have been held in 2019, along with its parent state Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and the Lok Sabha election.
December 11, when the votes are counted, will decide which party's charges were taken most seriously by the Telangana voters.

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