Farooq Abdullah tries to rope in rebels from other parties
National Conference leader dangles ‘regional autonomy’ as poll promise.
Telangana Chief Minister and TRS president K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR)’s decision to appoint his only son and former minister K.T. Rama Rao (KTR) as the party working president has received overwhelming support from the entire party brass, including seniors from the ministers in the previous Cabinet and MPs. There are huge crowds around KTR now.
KCR has announced that, henceforth, he would be concentrating on national politics and that he had made KTR as the working president to look after the growing needs of the party in Telangana. KCR had asked all his leaders to report to KTR for their day-to-day needs in running the organisation. The TRS state executive that met last Friday unanimously endorsed KTR’s appointment.
KCR, who was sworn in as the Chief Minister along with Mohammed Mahmood Ali as Home Minister on 13 December, is yet to form a full Cabinet and hasn’t fixed a date for oath taking of the newly elected MLAs which is a statutory formality to commence the tenure of the Assembly. As per present indications, the new House might meet for a day by the end of December, but so far, there is no confirmation.
The Cabinet formation which might see induction of six to eight more faces is being delayed as KCR is believed to be waiting for an auspicious “Muhurath”. As TRS won 88 out of 119 seats in the Assembly, dozens of MLAs are eagerly waiting for ministerial berths. Meanwhile, two more Independents—Ramulu Naik and Koganti Chander—joined TRS, taking its tally to 90.
In a part meeting this week, KCR said that he would have to take into consideration all the 90 MLAs with the party and also the possibility of some more Congress MLAs indicating their willingness to join TRS while forming the Cabinet. The CM had said that he would expand his Cabinet in two phases—first six to eight would be taken and after the Lok Sabha elections, another 10 would be inducted.
As per recommendations of the administrative reforms committee, Telangana can have a council of ministers with a size of 18, including the CM. While the Assembly has 119 seats, the Legislative Council has 40 seats.
Sources close to the CM say that KCR wants to fill the Cabinet with people who can adjust well with KTR, the future leader of the party. The CM is considering doing away with seniors and veterans so that young blood can be infused into both the party and the government. He is also toying with the idea of inducting first time elected MLAs too so that they can be groomed by KTR.
“This is going to be a KTR-friendly team,” said a TRS MP preferring to be anonymous. The MP gave the example of doing away of the post of deputy chief ministers from the previous team. Of the two deputy CMs, only one—Mohammed Mahmood Ali—was made a minister, but without designation. He is now only a Home Minister. Another Deputy Chief Minister Kadiam Srihari was kept out.
That KTR has now become the centre of attraction in TRS is evident from the huge crowds around him wherever he moves. All the TRS MLAs and MPs made a beeline to the party headquarters, Telangana Bhavan, on 17 December when he assumed charge as working president and greeted him with bouquets and invited him to visit their constituencies. The National Conference (NC) is aggressively trying to assert itself as a regional force in Jammu and Kashmir and has started a massive campaign in all the three regions of the state asking people to vote them to power in the next elections so that not only the state’s autonomy is “restored”, but regional autonomy is also granted to the people.
Party patriarch Farooq Abdullah has been very visible working in this direction. He is seen talking to the dissidents of all other political parties and has been able to bring them into the NC fold ahead of the Assembly elections in the state.
In the recent past, Abdullah has been very active and in command of his party. He has decided to remain the face of the party and has been instrumental in bringing many former lawmakers from PDP and BJP into his party.
Abdullah said that he will bring all like-minded politicians into his party fold.
He said that if his party musters a majority, he will not waste time in implementing the Regional Autonomy Committee report. All the three regions will get the maximum autonomy and all the sub-regions will also get maximum powers so that the freedom percolates down to the grossroot level, he added. Dubbing the Governor’s Rule as autocratic and demanding early elections in the state, he said that time has come for New Delhi to respect the sentiments of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. He regretted that the civilian killings in Kashmir were igniting more protests and providing space for the “freedom” sentiments. He was in Jammu on Thursday and promised before the media that within 30 days of being voted to power, he will give regional autonomy to all the three regions. He was speaking at an event organised there to welcome expelled BJP leader and former MLA Gagan Bhagat into National Conference.
Earlier in Srinagar, Abdullah garlanded two former PDP ministers— Syed Basharat Bukhari and Peer Muhammad Hussain— in the presence of the media. He said that he was continuing with his efforts to bring into his party fold many more former lawmakers from many other parties.
Abdullah seems to have sensed that if he remains the face of NC, more and more prominent political activists will join his party.
Sources close to the party circles told this reporter that all those former lawmakers who have joined NC were reluctant to join if his son Omar would have headed the party.