All political parties have their core vote banks from different sections of society.
For the Congress, it has been principally the Dalits and minorities, or the BJP, it is the RSS care and Hindutva proponents and likewise for other parties.
The advantage of the vote bank is that it stays intact and loyal over decades and primarily owes its allegiance to the party symbol.
There are people who vote blindly for the ‘Hand’, ‘Lotus’ or the ‘Cycle’ in Andhra Pradesh irrespective of the political and economic scenario. That, is the advantage these parties have.
But, in Telangana, the TRS cannot claim any such advantage. All the people voted out of gratitude for KCR for his role in making Telangana a reality. In other words, TRS is purely a sentiment -driven party.
And in 2019, this sentiment is expected to prevail as well although it might not get as many seats as it got in 2014.
The importance of the sentiment can be understood from this stance of TRS: Congress is an anti-Telangana party because it passed a resolution in favour of SCS to AP. If that happens, all industries will shift from Hyderabad to Vijayawada.
There will come a certain point when sentiment will no longer work and that is when the cadre becomes important.
As of now, the TRS is probably the only Party without permanent cadre. So, the sooner it focuses on good governance and building grassroot workers, the better it is for the men in pink.
