Hyderabad: After several days of dejected parlances across the political board, an oeillade and several hints from the Bharatiya Janata Party gave former minister Eatala Rajender a shot in the arm, and an ounce of heady confidence, reflecting at his presser on Tuesday, in which he shot an array of sharp repartees at TRS supremo and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao.
A senior BJP leader, speaking from Delhi, explained, “ever since the time Rajender was dropped from the TRS cabinet and investigations into land grabbing were launched, there was a divide in the party on whether to take him in or ignore. Finally, the party has decided that it would be open to taking him, as he will likely prove to be an asset.”
But leaders across the state BJP played coy, profusely denying any big change in its divided stance over sending overtures to the strong Mudiraj leader.
“Some idle TV channels without any news began spreading some political palaver, which got further amplified on social media,” at least three senior BJP state leaders said. But none of them refuted the news of several meetings taking place between several party leaders and the entrenched Kamalapuram strongman.
“In my meetings with Rajender, I advised him to continue his fight against the injustice being meted to his people but desist from resigning from his MLA post. The TRS would want to push for a bye-election, which could be suicidal for him. Otherwise, we will continue to give him friendly advice and moral support,” said former MP and senior BJP leader A. P. Jithender Reddy.
Another BJP leader, who also met Rajender twice in the last few days, and who according to BJP Delhi sources is part of a three-member team to guide and induct Rajender, said, “there has been absolutely no discussion at the party’s national level over Eatala Rajender. I met him to generally discuss politics and understand his thinking about the future.”
Even as a posse of BJP denied serious interest in the former TRS minister and Huzurabad MLA, Rajender himself presented a buoyed self, while addressing the media, and resorting to distinctly more scathing remarks than since the start of the ordeal.
“You may resort to unethical politics in Karimnagar but people will reject it. Have you forgotten what happened in Dubbak? You are trying to lure people in my constituency and district but it won’t yield results,” he said.
Without naming his former boss by name, Rajender said, “are you suffering from vainglorious thoughts that you will remain in power forever? What you are doing to me today will happen to you tomorrow? You will be reduced to nothing.”
The previous galimatias replaced with strong rhetoric, Rajender also brought the previously avoided mention of a bye-election. “You think you can repeat a Nagarjunsagar here in Huzurabad. Big mistake. Karimnagar people place self-respect over money.”
He, however, possibly remembering the BJP advice, added, “of course, there will be no bye-election. But if or when there is one, you will witness an anger that is now spread across the state which is against a failing government with wrong priorities.”
Political scuttlebutt has it that while Rajender is enthused by the signal of hope coming from a party with a government at the centre, which could give him some immunity against severe legal action initiated by an estranged TRS government, he is not too keen to join the BJP, at least not as yet.
“Rajender somehow wishes to emerge as a rallying focal point of anti-TRS forces in the state. His ideal wish would be to become a consensus candidate of the entire opposition, which when split, as witnessed during the MLC graduate and Nagarjunsagar assembly bye-polls was not match for the mighty juggernaut of the ruling pink party,” said a political observer.
The BJP is in no mood for it. If Rajender won’t join the saffron party, which would give its cadre some morale boost and give it an opportunity to re-create the narrative it set for Dubbak and GHMC that it is the only alternative to the TRS in Telangana, it has no need for him.
Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, Vivek Venkataswamy, more forthcoming than most other leaders, said, “we offered Eatala Rajender a welcome to join BJP to join the fight against KCR’s corruption and dynasty rule. We told him we can also fight the Huzurabad bye-poll if it happens, but Eatala requested that we instead support him by not having our party candidate if he fights as an Independent.”
However, the former health minister’s efforts to meet the two most plenipotent leaders in the state BJP, minister of state for home affairs G. Kishan Reddy and party state president Bandi Sanjay have not fructified. Clearly, both of them would want to meet him after he agrees to joining the BJP.
Kishan Reddy dismissed the entire news as “mere speculation”.
“I have not met Eatala Rajender. Rajender called me and expressed a desire to meet me personally recently,” Mr Reddy said, adding that if Mr Rajender wants to join the BJP and wishes to discuss the modalities, we can consider.
Top Congress leaders, some of whom the former minister had earlier met, said that they “understood” his “compulsions” of having to finally opt for BJP over their party, despite being still stronger in rural Telangana, for “politico-legal protection”.
“We cannot offer what the BJP can give him, which is a kind of legal immunity,” they said.
While most BJP leaders felt it would be parlous for Rajender to resign as an MLA and push for a hardscrabble bye-poll at this point of time, arguing that if TRS makes it a prestige fight and puts all its resources, it would be nearly suicidal, a lone dissenting voice said, “there is a strong anti-KCR wave in Telangana, which has gotten further accentuated by the mishandling of the Covid crisis and underreporting of cases and deaths. The BJP can get back into the driver’s seat by not only forcing this bye-election but must also look at a few other MLAs who can be offered enough incentive to resign and have a slew of polls, either together or in quick succession.”
The contrarian thinking BJP leader added, “one discussion in our party is that Eatala is willing to resign from the MLA post and join the party if he is promised a Rajya Sabha seat.”
None from the Eatala Rajender camp, including Mr Rajender himself, could be contacted to respond to queries of Deccan Chronicle on the issue.
In any case, like the Dreyfus Affair, the la Rajender affair, is becoming centrestage to state politics, and in its resolution lies a pointer to what 2023 beckons.
