Telangana Rashtra Samithi president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, who initially a big announcement that he would go all out to defeat the Telugu Desam Party headed by N Chandrababu Naidu in Andhra Pradesh elections, has gone silent later.
The TRS leaders went to the extent of saying that KCR and other TRS leaders would definitely campaign for YSRC in the AP elections, but they backed out later.
And KCR, who had earlier predicted that the YSRC would get 20-22 Lok Sabha seats in AP, is not saying it now.
The TRS has remained silent even after Naidu started attacking KCR and accusing the latter of helping the YSRC financially.
Initially, KCR thought if the TRS gets 16 out of 17 MP seats in Telangana and YSRC gets 22 seats in AP, he would play an influential role in the Centre.
Since YSRC chief Y S Jaganmohan Reddy does not have interest in national politics, he would give free hand to KCR to lobby for both the states in the Centre with 38 seats together.
Sources in the TRS said KCR does not want the YSRC to put up a big show in AP, at least in the Lok Sabha elections.
Apparently, he realized that Jagan is a hard nut to crack and if YSRC gets 22 MP seats, he would not surrender them to the TRS and allow KCR to play the role of big brother.
“All said and done, Jagan has an understanding with the Bharatiya Janata Party, which has fair chances of coming to power at the Centre again. If the BJP falls short of a few seats, Jagan will definitely extend support to it.
“Even if there is a possibility of a third front government, Jagan with 22 MPs in hand himself will play a bigger role, rather than allowing KCR to use YSRC MPs for his political advantage,” an analyst said.
So, KCR now wants Jagan’s tally of MPs will be less than 15, so that the latter cannot have an upper hand.
“He has been telling the party functionaries that the TDP might lose power in AP, but it would fare better in Lok Sabha elections by winning not less than a dozen MP seats,” a source said.