Hyderabad: Even as the Gyanvapi debate in Uttar Pradesh takes centre stage in Indian politics, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) led by K. Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) is preparing the ground to reinvent its political strategy to counter saffron politics on its home turf.
While the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in the run up to the next elections, appears to be poised for a Hindu vote consolidation by taking advantage of the Gyanvapi dispute, KCR’s party appears to be playing soft Hindutva.
Y. Satish Reddy, TRS’s social media convenor, took to Twitter, criticising the BJP for saffronising educational institutes. The tweet inadvertently referred to the arrest of a Delhi University History professor, Ratan Lal, who was booked for an allegedly objectionable social media post that he made on a ‘Shivling’ that has purportedly been found at the Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi.
“I have no say if it’s a mandir\masjid there. But why is a public school [read educational institute] involved in this ruckus. Why are students of next generation being strategically targeted by Modi government?” Reddy wrote on Twitter.
I have no say if it’s a mandir/masjid there. But, why is a public school involved in this ruckus? Why are students of next generation being strategically targeted by Modi Govt?
AdvertisementLet education be pure & let institutes work without nonsense. @nhpsofficial, you have to clarify! pic.twitter.com/nk6lL51We0
— YSR (@ysathishreddy) May 21, 2022
Last year, KCR’s daughter Kalvakuntla Kavitha, who is a member of the legislative council, said that her party will counter the BJP’s slogan, ‘Jai Shri Ram’ with ‘Jai Hanuman’. She also said that the TRS will not allow the BJP’s game plan of dividing Hindus to succeed in Telangana. In February last year, she gave a call to perform Hanuman Chalisa Parayanam for a period of 41 days from Chinna Hanuman Jayanthi to Pedda Hanuman Jayanthi.
Kavitha lost her Lok Sabha seat in Nizamabad to the BJP in the 2019 general elections.
Also read: ‘Blatant Violation of Places of Worship Act’: Asaduddin Owaisi on Gyanvapi Mosque Order
Regional sentiment on the wane
The TRS fought the 2014 and 2018 assembly elections, prioritising the state’s regional sentiment, in an alliance with Asaduddin Owaisi’s All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM).
However, KCR’s strategy failed to work in the 2019 general elections as the BJP won four Lok Sabha seats with 20% vote share.
Therefore, soon after his party’s setback in the Lok Sabha elections, KCR changed his plans to counter the aggressive Hindutva agenda of the saffron party.
In March 2021, he performed a series of ‘yagams’ such as Sudarshana, Chandi and Rajashyamala Yagams. The state government has also invested Rs 1,800 crore for the renovation of a temple in Yadadri Bhuvanagiri district of Telangana.
But it appears that KCR has eyed winning the next election by playing soft Hindutva and teaming up with the AIMIM.
In January 2020, the TRS and AIMIM won the Nizamabad urban body elections. Though the BJP emerged as the single largest party in the civic polls, it fell short of a majority to come to power. In the 2020 elections for Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation too, the BJP improved its tally, while the TRS dwindled with its strength and failed to come to power on its own. KCR managed to keep the BJP out of the state capital only because AIMIM extended it last-minute support.
