After the BJP lost the state, the first ever it gained in the south, the party started realizing how the Congress ruined its chances through its own leaders.
First, Congress cried foul when the then Chief Minister Yedyurappa was indicted by the Lok Ayukta in corruption charges. It fought persistently for the removal of Yedyurappa. Even after being removed from the Chief Minister’s post, Yedyurappa wanted to continue in the party. Only he wanted to be made the state party chief. As he was not loyal to top leader Advani, he was not given that opportunity.
Observers say it was Congress which was behind Yedyurappa’s move to launch his own party so that he could have his sweet revenge. Congress strongly supported him from behind, so that the BJP votes would be split, to its advantage. Analysts say that BJP lost 80 seats because of the split and otherwise would have easily got 120 seats. With these 80 added to its tally, Congress got 120 seats instead.
This is how Congress won the Karnataka elections, now analysts say. BJP also realized very late that it should not have allowed Yedyurappa leave the party.
In Andhra Pradesh, when the then Mega Star Chiranjeevi launched his PRP and fought the 2009 elections, Congress was only too happy that one more party arrived on the scene to split the anti-incumbency votes. It was even alleged that Congress leaders supported the PRP surreptitiously. Result is Chiranjeevi split a major chunk of anti-incumbency votes that might have gone in favour of the TDP and deprived Chandra Babu Naidu of a chance to become the Chief Minister.
Now Congress High Command is trying to perform this magical strategy in Andhra Pradesh, to counter the Jagan factor in the Seemandhra region and the KCR factor in Telangana.
Congress has already made an attempt to weaken the TRS earlier. It encouraged Rashtriya Lok Dal President and union minister Ajit Singh to launch the Telangana unit of his party. Ajit appointed Indira Dileep Kumar, wife of MLC Dileep Kumar as his party’s working president. Ajit Singh also had the blessings of Congress MP Madhu Yashki, senior leader Kesava Rao and Telangana JAC convener Prof. Kodandaram. Kodandaram who was then having differences with KCR also was willing to throw his weight behind the Telangana RLD.
However, Ajit Singh could not come up to the expectations of the Congress leadership. After the launch, the party had done nothing to mobilize people’s support.
It is learnt that some Congress leaders posing as dissidents are trying to encourage Kodandaram to launch a political party himself or make some trusted person of his, to launch one. Congress is hoping that if a new party was launched with the blessings of the JAC convener, it would surely attract the attention of the people and get a considerable share of the Telangana votes.
The party is also on the look out for another strong political party in the Seemandhra region to split Jagan votes there. It may try to use the Rayalaseema sentiment and dissident leaders like Konatala Rama Krishna to marginalize Jagan in the Seemandhra area.
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