Hyderabad: Political strategist Prashant Kishor visited the multi-purpose Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project — the brainchild of Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao — in the state’s Bhupalpally district Sunday, adding fuel to rumours that he might soon work with KCR’s Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS).
Accompanying Kishor was actor Prakash Raj — a staunch critic of the BJP — who accompanied KCR for his meeting with his Maharashtra counterpart Uddhav Thackeray earlier this month. The visit came amid the Telangana CM’s aggressive efforts to stitch together an anti-BJP front at the national level.
“He (Kishor) is in Hyderabad. Considering how it works with these consultant services, they’re being briefed about work here. He will meet the chief minister too,” TRS leader and former MP Vinod Kumar told ThePrint, adding that the association is “still not official”.
Party sources said Kishor, whose Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) is based in Hyderabad, and KCR have been in touch for the past two years, and meetings have been held over the past few weeks.
Discussions between them for a serious association ahead of the 2023 assembly elections, and KCR’s push for a national role, have been going on “at least since October last year”, the sources said.
“In one or two days, we will officially know about the association. Kishor has been in touch with the CM for quite some time now,” TRS leader and Rajya Sabha member Keshava Rao told ThePrint.
However, the political strategist denied any such role.
In response to ThePrint’s queries on whether his association with the TRS is for the upcoming state elections or KCR’s ambition for a national role, he replied “neither”.
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‘I-PAC team already in Telangana’
Meanwhile, I-PAC has swung into action and is already laying the pitch for surveys across the state, sources in the political consultancy said. “There is already a team in the state, they are settling down,” a source in I-PAC told ThePrint.
An I-PAC member, who did not wish to be named, said K.T. Rama (KTR) Rao, Telangana’s IT minister and the CM’s son, is also part of talks.
“KTR has been actively involved in discussions. After the Goa polls, focus is being set on Telangana,” the I-PAC member told ThePrint.
I-PAC assisted Trinamool Congress, led by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, in the Goa assembly elections that took place two weeks ago, an association that has been marred by controversy. The consultancy had also helped Mamata’s campaign during the West Bengal assembly election last year, when the CM won a third consecutive term in office.
I-PAC’s association with Telugu-speaking states is not new. It assisted Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy during the 2019 Andhra Pradesh assembly election, which he won with a thumping majority, crushing the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), led by former CM Chandrababu Naidu.
Prakash Raj’s role
TRS’ Vinod Kumar, who is also vice-chairman of the Telangana State Planning Board, told ThePrint that actor Prakash Raj is likely to play a “key role” in association with KCR in the coming days.
“Hopefully, in the coming days, he (Prakash Raj) will play a key role. It’s not crystallised yet, still in initial stages,” he said.
ThePrint sought a comment from the actor on the matter by text, but got no response.
Raj had also accompanied KCR in 2018, when the latter met former prime minister and Janata Dal (Secular) chief H.D. Deve Gowda, again as part of efforts for a ‘third front’ against both the Congress and the BJP.
KCR’s national push as BJP makes inroads in state
KCR has been aggressively trying to form an anti-BJP front — something he has been doing since 2018, although nothing has materialised to this end. He has been pitching for a ‘third front’, but the focus of late has just been a non-BJP front.
The chief minister has, over the past few months, launched scathing attacks on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his governance — from accusing the BJP of “dividing” the country through religious politics, to alleging that the Modi government has “broken” the nation’s federal structure, to lashing out at its policies.
Frequent press interactions, public meetings and stressing on the need to remove BJP from power at the Centre have been KCR’s focus over the past few weeks. This comes at a time when the BJP is making deeper inroads into the state.
Since 2020, the TRS has lost to the BJP in two crucial bypolls (Dubbaka in 2020 and Huzurabad last year). The BJP also made its mark in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation elections in 2020, increasing its tally by 10 times.
Political analyst Professor K. Nageshwar told ThePrint that KCR has a “political vision, but it is not necessary that his vision would work all the time”.
“The BJP is slowly emerging as a force and competition against KCR. It might also be the case that Kishor’s capability to take on the BJP in Bengal might have made KCR think that it could be useful here,” he said.
On Kishor’s visit to Telangana, Nageshwar said: “KCR has been wanting to play a role in national politics. So, considering how Prashant Kishor not just helped TMC in the state but also boosted Mamata Banerjee’s image on a national level, it might be possible that Kishor might not just be working on helping KCR in state politics, but also with his role in national politics.”
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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