Bharatiya Janata Party, which has been conquering one state after the other by engineering split in the opposition Congress, is said to be planning a similar strategy in Telangana.
The BJP has already managed to split the Congress in Karnataka by making 16 of them resigning from the assembly membership as well as party.
In Goa, too, there is a similar split in the Congress with 10 out of 15 Congress MLAs coming of the party to form a separate group and then merge with the BJP.
According to highly placed sources, the BJP central leadership is planning a similar split in the Telangana Rashtra Samithi in the coming months.
A strategy to this effect was discussed by BJP national president Amit Shah with his state party leaders during his recent visit to Hyderabad.
He reportedly told the state BJP leaders to intensify efforts to identify disgruntled TRS legislators and lure them into the BJP gradually.
According to his information, at least 35-40 TRS MLAs were unhappy with the style of functioning of Telangana chief minster KCR and given a better offer, they could be trapped.
Apparently, Shah is said to be aiming at attracting KCR’s nephew and former irrigation minister T Harish Rao, who has the capacity to engineer a huge split in the TRS.
One doesn’t not know how far Shah’s calculations are correct, but sources said he is pretty serious about consolidating the BJP by 2023 and come to power subsequently.