During the December 11 assembly elections, Telangana Rashtra Samithi president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had been attacking the Congress party more, making sharp comments against Congress president Rahul Gandhi and his electoral alliance with Telugu Desam Party.
But in the ongoing electioneering for Lok Sabha seats, KCR has changed his tune and has been specifically targeting Bharatiya Janata Party in general and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in particular. It is not that he is sparing the Congress, but his prime target has been Modi and not Rahul.
The reason is obvious: in the assembly elections, the TRS chief had the only aim of preventing the Congress from coming to power in the state and the BJP was very insignificant in the local narrative. So, he targeted Rahul Gandhi.
But in the Lok Sabha elections, KCR knows that the Congress is no force to fight the elections at least in Telangana, but the focus would be on Modi. He knows the urban electorate and educated youth would be impacted by Modi factor.
Since his party has an open understanding with the MIM, there could be a shift of votes from TRS to the BJP. Hence, he started running down the BJP and Modi so that the TRS can win 16 MP seats.
And there is also another factor. According to the Congress leaders, KCR, his son KTR and Kavitha have been going soft in their attack on Rahul Gandhi and Congress and attacking Modi more only to prevent the current migration of minorities to Congress.
“In order to prevent the minorities from tilting towards the Congress, KCR has been attacking the BJP. He is of the view that the more he abuses Modi, the more will be the shift of minorities from Congress to the TRS,” Chevella MP candidate Konda Vishweshwar Reddy said.