Modi couldn’t have asked for a more focused foe. It is like KCR goes to bed with Modi in his dark thoughts and wakes up to the resolve of teaching Modi yet another lesson on how to be Prime Minister of India. Now, he says, he’ll take the Modi Government to the Supreme Court on Rafale, and he also wants, a la Rahul Gandhi, “proof of the Balakote surgical strikes.”

Come to think of it, when push comes to shove, Narendra Modi is not PM-material for K Chandrashekara Rao. He might even term Modi “Accidental Prime Minister”, not Manmohan Singh. KCR does not skimp on unsavoury words for Modi. KCR is also convinced of the Modi Government’s “corrupt practices” which, he says, assorted people have told of and he has “proof” to back the claims.

He says he’ll expose the “corruption in all languages.” Mind you, Modi tries to speak all of India’s languages. The latest was Tamil in the Lok Sabha, answering Rahul Gandhi’s assertion that the Tamil people will never accept Modi as “King”. If KCR is read right, neither will the Telangana people. But, say Modi’s supporters, KCR is smarting from the time TRS was cast aside in two bypolls—that KCR and TRS’s sell-by dates are close to expiry.

If KCR’s political adversaries are to be believed, KCR’s tirade against Modi is “24 carat political” and consequent to KCR’s realization that his honeymoon with power in Telangana is to the point of extinction. After the bypoll defeats, KCR has been blowing hot and cold at the BJP. He was also studiously “ignoring” the Congress.

But he kept the battle with the BJP confined to the state, differentiating the BJP’s state unit with the moniker “Silly BJP” vis a vis “Delhi BJP.” One political analyst termed KCR’s handling of the BJP as “launching a trenchant attack on the Telangana unit of the party.”

And towards this his barbs were aimed at the BJP’s state unit president and Karimnagar MP Bandi Sanjay Kumar. But somewhere along the way Bandi gave way to Modi. These days KCR’s “BJP strategy” has become national. Bandi is forgotten and KCR can only see Modi in the crosshairs.

Apparently, KCR is famous for his “deft and flexible political moves.” He also “weighs all options” before setting up the enemy for the kill, especially when the enemy is many times the size of TRS. According to professional TRS watchers, KCR’s many-pronged attack on the BJP has now zeroed down to Modi, i.e., go for the head, and the body will fold all by itself.

Therefore, K Chandrashekara Rao has sworn to unseat Modi from 7, Lok Kalyan Marg—leave no traces of Gujarat in the political lairs of New Delhi. And KCR is not a shy guy. He is a pugilist who knows how not to pull punches. The dislike for Modi in KCR grew slowly but surely. The enmity is bitter and now it has sunk into the very psyche of KCR.

Maybe there’s a similar realization in Modi, too. Modi ignores KCR’s barbs and descends on Hyderabad like “God” on one of His rare earthly sojourns. KCR in turn doesn’t turn up at the airport as protocol demands. KCR’s shift from attacking “Silly BJP” to targeting “Solely Modi” is a move that indicates that it’s “personal” between the two, especially as far as KCR is concerned.

Could it be that Modi did not pick up the phone! Nobody knows, but there’s a shift, in as much that “ignoring Congress” has given way to courting the Congress! Maybe, it’s the Uddhav effect or Uddhav-Stalin effect. Both Uddhav Thackeray and MK Stalin rate Rahul Gandhi high and now we have KCR not only rooting for Rahul Gandhi, but also fighting for “Rahul’s honour.”

It is multi-pronged, the attacks on Modi—there is Uddhav Thackeray from one flank; MK Stalin from another flank. And now, KCR from a third flank, this one no-holds barred, all guns blazing. KCR took on Assam Chief Minister HemantaBiswaSarma for demanding “proof of paternity barb” from Rahul Gandhi. In turn, KCR wants “proof of the surgical attacks” from the Modi Government.

From “trivializing” the Congress to defending “Rahul Gandhi’s honour”, KCR has come a long way. From treating the Huzurabad loss as a “non-issue” to taking on Modi as “mortal enemy”, KCR has come a long way. KCR supported the farmers’ protests, the rollback of cesses on petrol and diesel and insisted that the FCI procure paddy.

There is a theory doing the rounds that KCR wanted to project the BJP as the TRS’s main rival, not the Congress. But to the TRS’s dismay the BJP’s had made serious inroads into TRS turf and that was worrying. It galls KCR that the BJP might have actually emerged as a “significant player” like he wanted to convey.

KCR’s earlier strategy fell and now he’s attacking Modi and propping up Rahul Gandhi. Assam Chief Minister Hemanta Biswas joined the BJP from the Congress in 2015. He has since then targeted Rahul Gandhi. In 2018, KCR had called Rahul the “biggest buffoon in the country.” Now, if it strikes him, he will give that title gladly to Prime Minister Narendra Modi—the "biggest buffoon in India"! (IPA Service)