Telangana Rashtra Samithi president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao considers himself a shrewd politician and a leader of high intellect.
He is pretty confident that no other politician in the country can match up to his intelligence standards.
When Telugu Desam Party was in power in Andhra Pradesh between 2014 and 2019, KCR never used to get along well with then chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, who was also a shrewd politician and a wily leader.
So when YSR Congress party leader Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy came to power this May, KCR thought he could easily influence Jagan because the latter had no experience.
He thought he could trap Jagan with his sweet words, praises and felicitations and take Jagan for a ride at a later stage.
But that was where KCR had underestimated Jagan’s shrewdness as a politician.
Jagan was quick to read the mind of KCR, when the latter started showing unusual love towards Andhra Pradesh and said he would extend all support to Jagan to irrigate parched lands of Rayalaseema.
And when KCR finally proposed to Jagan for taking up a joint irrigation project to divert Godavari waters to Krishna basin at a cost of Rs 1 lakh crore, the latter realised KCR’s game plan.
He quietly listened to KCR to understand his strategy and gave an impression to the outside world that he had joined hands with the Telangana chief minister.
But on Monday, Jagan gave a rude shock to KCR by announcing his own plan to divert Godavari waters to Krishna basin within the limits of Andhra Pradesh without involving any part of Telangana.
The project was to take water from Polavaram in West Godavari to Banakacharla in Kurnool district through a series of channels and canals, besides a balancing reservoir at Bollapalle in Guntur district. The total project cost is Rs 60,000 crore.
Now, KCR cannot take up a separate project to link Krishna and Godavari rivers as it involves huge cost.
Jagan has virtually checkmated his plans to get the benefits to Telangana at the cost of Andhra.
That is Jagan!