Hyderabad: In 2001, when Kalavakuntla Chandrasekhar Rao formed the Telangana Rashtra Samiti, many advised him that Telangana was an impossible dream. But if one were to look at any historic movement or struggle, it is the kind of advice every leader has received.
Our leader chose to dream anyway and worked towards fulfilling the goal of statehood for Telangana. It would be easy to bunch the last 13 years of the TRS in terms of elections, seats, alliances and results. But for Mr Rao, it was a dream he worked towards every single day, gnawing away at hurdles bit by bit, gathering alongside him a sea of humanity, who had for decades suffered the humility of living as neglected citizens.
The victory of the TRS is not just a whirlwind campaign of one month, but years of sweat and toil, which helped us win the confidence of the electorate and the chance to form the first government of Telangana.
The parties which fought against us in this landmark election, be it the Congress, Telugu Desam or the Bhartiya Janata Party, have all acknowledged that a leader of the stature of Mr Rao has been a key factor in the Telangana movement.
After the Bifurcation Bill was passed in both Houses of Parliament, Congress leaders assumed that the battle was as good as won. The TRS on the other hand realised that it had just begun. One can’t just rest on the laurels of having achieved the impossible: We need to lay out a clear plan for the future of the new state.
A long struggle has worn out the people of Telangana. They need reassurance, they need a proper agenda in every sector, be it agriculture, irrigation, electricity, health, education, jobs, social welfare or infrastructural development. And that is precisely what the TRS did.
Our party leaders sat down with experts in every field and worked out the manifesto which the Congress dismissed as unimplementable. Our number crunching showed that every point in our manifesto, be it reservations, improved pensions and housing for the poor or creation of new jobs, could be fulfilled if one went about it with honesty and commitment.
Throughout the course of our struggle and during the election campaign as well, we involved students, government employees, grass roots-level rural workers, a large number of women, intellectuals and reached out to practically every corner of society.
Today the media praises Mr Rao’s charisma and ability to inspire crowds. But there have been several other times when the same media outlets were not. But anyone who witnessed even some of his 107 rallies across the length and breadth of Telangana in 10 days understood that there could not be a better man to head the Telangana government. Telangana is like a newborn and the first five years are crucial for any child. It needs the right amount of care and nurturing.
The sense that I kept getting when I was canvassing was that the UPA government dragged its feet for too long in delivering and the anger was palpable.
Voters wanted a party that was born in their land and a party that will be uncompromising when it comes to asserting the rights of Telanganites.
The people of Telangana have given us a decisive mandate, be it our Assembly tally of 63 seats or the LS count of 11 seats. The tremendous responsibility of developing Telangana lies on us and we are confident of attracting several investments and not just to Hyderabad.
We will also focus on developing clusters of developed industrial towns in the various districts and ensure a booming economy for our newborn state.
Finally, I'd like to say that in the face of a Modi wave across the country, the voters of Telangana proved that they have a mind of their own. They have reposed faith in a party which they know took birth just to serve them.
Desam’s roots in Telangana intact
Y.S. Chowdary, Member of parliament, Telugu Desam
The recently concluded elections in Andhra Pradesh gave an opportunity to the rest of the country to judge the rational approach adopted by the people of Andhra Pradesh towards a burning and provocative situation .
Everyone was aware just before the elections that the decision to divide the state was announced by the Congress-led UPA government in an arbitrary manner, ignoring the calls for a rational approach to one of the most highly contentious issues of recent times in the country.
It is futile to go into the details of the issues relating to the division of the state at this stage as it will only add salt to the wound.
The Congress-led UPA government left no stones unturned to foment hatred among the people of Telangana and the rest of the state.
It is pertinent to remember that the people of the state faced elections in this back drop, which constantly reminded them of mutual hatred.
In this sensitive scenario, a great responsibility was on the shoulders of the Telugu Desam leadership to prepare the party for elections in both the regions without aggravating the sentiments of the people who were hurt.
At the same time, the country witnessed the most ineffective and corrupt governance and the TD felt that it owed a greater responsibility to the nation to rid it of the corrupt rule of the Congress. Considering this responsibility, it joined hands with the BJP in the larger interest of the country as there was no other way to achieve the task.
The outcome of the recently concluded elections is only a testimony of the wisdom of the TDP. By and large, the TD fared well in Telangana and Seemandhra regions. Though, the TRS and Congress colluded to harm the political interests of the TD in Telangana, the party fared better than the Congress only due to its affinity with the people of the region rather than political reasons. Everyone expected that the people of Telangana would vote for the TRS and Congress but they preferred TRS as the first option and the TD as second.
It may be due to sentiment rather than respect for the TRS leadership. This fact clearly proves that the roots of TD are still intact in Telangana and people of the region still love it for the good governance offered by it.
This is the wisdom shown by the people of Telangana towards a party, which is identified by good governance over a period of time.
Contrary to the situation in Telangana, the people of Seemandhra were fuming as they felt deceived and were facing the threat of a highly corrupt person in the form YSRCP trying to take over the reins of the new state.
The results are a clear indication that people did not believe the false claims of the YSRCP and they clearly understood its evil designs behind the efforts to get to power at any cost.
The vast majority rejected the efforts of the YSRCP aimed at only diluting the cases against Jagan mohan Reddy under the guise of so many incentives. This great wisdom shown by the people of Seemandhra saved the region from the disaster of a most corrupt person heading the government.
The underlying moral is that in Parliamentary democracy selfish politicians may try to buy votes but will not succeed in buying collective wisdom.
