Ever since YSR Congress party president Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy recorded a landslide victory in the just concluded Andhra Pradesh assembly elections and Lok Sabha elections, Telangana Rashtra Samithi president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao seems to be feeling insecure.
There is a reason for this insecurity feeling. Before the declaration of election results, KCR had been under the impression that the TRS would definitely get 16 MP seats in Telangana and YSR Congress would also get 15-16 MP seats in Andhra Pradesh.
Like KCR, Jagan does not have much interest in playing a national politics. So, the TRS chief thought he would play a big brother role in the Telugu states and emerge a kingmaker in deciding the formation of government at the Centre by forming a federal front with all regional parties, if the BJP-led NDA or Congress-led coalition would not be able to form the government at the Centre.
However, all his hopes are now dashed completely with the BJP returning to power with a massive mandate at the Centre and Jagan recording unprecedented victory in both the assembly and Lok Sabha elections.
On the other hand, the TRS graph went down steeply as it could win just nine out of 17 seats with great difficulty.
Now, forget about playing the role of a big brother, KCR cannot even match up to Jagan in terms of popularity and image.
Having realised this, the TRS chief is trying to bask in the glory of Jagan and get out of impending troubles from the Centre.
Though the BJP does not require the support of Jagan, the latter definitely needs the Centre’s support in securing more funds to the state.
Besides, Jagan also needs the help of the Centre in coming out clean from the pending CBI cases against him. So, under any circumstances, the YSRC chief will not enter into confrontation with the BJP at the Centre.
At the same time, KCR cannot be so friendly with the BJP, having attacked Narendra Modi, Amit Shah and others strongly during the elections.
Secondly, the BJP is planning to grow independently in Telangana and therefore, will not cooperate with the KCR government, besides creating troubles in various ways.
So, the TRS chief is trying to be friendly with Jagan and through him, he wants to restore friendly relations with Modi again.
The unprecedented reception he had given to Jagan at his residence, the way he accepted Jagan’s request for transfer of certain officials to AP and the decision to attend Jagan’s swearing-in ceremony, besides choosing to travel to Delhi along with Jagan in the same special flight – all indicate how KCR wants to cash in on the popularity of Jagan!