Hyderabad: The year will go down in the annals of political history as the year of formation of the Telangana state and also the year of turncoats in both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
MPs, legislators, leaders and activists dumped their opposition status to join hands with Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and Andhra Pradesh CM N. Chandrababu Naidu.
Interestingly, while Mr Naidu embraced leaders of the YSR Congress and other parties in Andhra Pradesh, his party condemned floor crossing in Telangana. Mr Naidu encouraged defections and mr Rao picked it up.
For Mr Rao, who was heckled and abused by both the Congress and the Telugu Desam during the Telangana movement, it was sweet revenge in luring turncoats from these parties.
Earlier the Congress, led by Y.S.R. Rajasekhar Reddy, had literally split the TRS by luring as many as 10 legislators and landed a body blow to Mr Rao.
But, fate took a tragic turn in the death of YSR and the TRS bouncing back in the movement and to power.
Proving poll pundits wrong, Mr Rao won 63 Assembly seats in the House of 119, which comes to a simple majority. He also bagged 11 Lok Sabha seats out of 17.
And, though Mr Rao does not have a threat to his ministry, he seems to have decided to consolidate his party in all districts, especially in Hyderabad city and Khammam. He has thus welcomed all and sundry into the party from the Congress, the Telugu Desam, the BSP and other organisations.
Mr Rao’s demolition drive, spate of new schemes including integrated water grid, cleaning of tanks, fillip to the IT sector, new industrial policy and other programmes and policies besides rewards to loyalists, instilled confidence in turncoats.
The TRS-MIM alliance has made the party strong in Hyderabad city, but not on its own to face the GHMC polls. Mr Rao thus looked to Telugu Desam Sanathnagar MLA, T Srinivas Yadav, a former minister, for strengthening the party in Hyderabad city, proving that turncoats are no longer outcasts, but a part of democracy.
