In his first interview to the media after the electoral debacle, Professor Kodandaram opined that it was not correct to attribute the TRS victory to EVM-tampering.
“We failed in taking the Mahakutami agenda to the public. Neither the Congress nor the TDP leadership listened to me. I told them that we needed at least 50 days for campaigning but they said three weeks was enough,” said KCR.
Kodanda is absolutely right because there were plenty of hints given by KCR that he would go in for early polls.
The Congress then responded with bravado saying it was prepared for the elections any time. However while KCR declared his candidates immediately after dissolving the Assembly, till the last minute, Congress was busy stitching an alliance with the other Parties not to speak of declaring the candidates.
The result was that while KCR and his partymen got a great head start and actively sang the same old tune of ‘Telangana pride’ and ‘anti-Andhra’, the people on the other hand didn’t even know who the Congress candidates were or whether there would even be an alliance.
In fact, KCR borrowed this formula from Mamata Banerjee who declared her Party candidates well in advance in Bengal and reaped dividends.
Kodanda also made two significant observations. He said there was no scope at all in the current scheme of things for KCR’s Third Front. But the most interesting statement he made was that Chandrababu Naidu will stand to benefit if KCR campaigns in Andhra.
This is true because contrary to what KCR thinks or is trying to project, barring a handful of people who claim to be his fans by virtue of belonging to the same caste as he, there will be a severe backlash if he steps into Andhra for electoral reasons and the Party that he campaigns for will be decimated because of the anti-Telangana sentiment.
Is he fool enough to think that the people of Andhra will ever forget the vulgarity he mouthed non-stop against them for the better part of a decade?
So, on all three counts, Kodandaram has got it absolutely right.