During the electioneering for just concluded assembly elections in Telangana, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi went all out against the Telugu Desam Party for joining hands with the Congress to forge a grand alliance or Maha Kootami or People’s Front.
During his election campaign, TRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao focused mostly on attacking TDP and its president N Chandrababu Naidu.
Raising the Telangana self-respect bogey, KCR warned the people against voting for Maha Kootami, as Naidu was conspiring to bring the Andhra colonial rule back into the state.
He went to the extent of calling upon the people to choose between a remote controlled rule from Amaravati or a local self-rule.
Such was the intensity of the TRS campaign that it was projected as a war between KCR and Chandrababu Naidu, rather than TRS-Congress battle.
At one stage, even the Congress leaders started saying that the alliance with the TDP was doing more damage than good to their party.
Now that the TRS had won the elections in Telangana, it has changed its tune completely. It does not want create an impression that the Congress would have won the elections had it not allied with the TDP, as people of Telangana did not like Naidu and his party.
The TRS leaders have started saying that their party had won only because of KCR and his government’s pro-poor policies and not because of the Congress-TDP alliance.
“People had decided to give victory to TRS party long back and the Congress party-TDP alliance had not made any difference. It didn’t affect the electoral fortunes of the TRS party',” said TRS MP Vinod.
He said that alliance has nothing to do with the success of TRS. He asserted that either Congress coalition with TDP or vice-versa was not responsible for the thumping victory of TRS.
He said that KCR worked for the development of Telangana and achieved success with blessings of people.
“PCC chief Uttam Kumar Reddy is trying to escape from his failure and pointing Naidu as a reason for defeat in the elections. Naidu allied with Congress after KCR denied to join with TDP,” Vinod said.
