Unfortunately, there are more dark clouds and no silver lining to take KCR to Cloud 9. Polls are all about winning seats but KCR is in a dilemma over staying relevant in Telangana politics. The paradox is, this person was the politician to go to till only a year ago. Today, K Chandrasekhar Rao has been reduced to a cipher in Telangana politics. From henceforth nobody will believe in the “havan politics” which KCR took to ridiculous heights, relying on the flames from the “havankhund” to return him to power than on a concrete developmental record.

K Chandrasekhar Rao’s 40-year political journey is on the brink. One superstition toted is Telangana Rashtra Samithi shouldn't have gone national. The TRS was founded in April 2001 and KCR “weathered many a storm” with the party, till 2023 when the party was left for dead. KCR’s opponents tasted blood and now they want his skin nailed to the wall. It is no longer “every time his opponents tried to finish him off politically, KCR emerged stronger”.

The marrow in BRS bones is no longer pink. KCR is fighting scams and heading a party in decline with his detractors chipping away at whatever remains. Right now, KCR’s political future is hostage to the 2024 poll verdict. The 2023 assembly election results were a nightmare and KCR’s own ups and downs paled in front of the debacle. Today, BRS leaders are leaving the party and getting a healthy count of Lok Sabha seats would be the only cure left.

From 63 seats in the 2014 assembly polls to 88 seats in the 2018 polls, KCR and TRS were on a roll till 2023’s rude shock of only 39 seats. On the Lok Sabha front, TRS won 11 out of 17 seats in 2014 but the number fell to nine Lok Sabha seats in 2019. Today, staring at the 2024 elections, KCR has to win more seats than Chief Minister Revanth Reddy to stay relevant and only then can he be in happy communion with the state’s voters.

Goal No.1, BRS has to win more Lok Sabha seats than the Congress. Only then can KCR think of a comeback. Two, only a victory over the Congress will staunch the haemorrhaging of BRS leaders. The migration is so acute, the party will be a skeleton of its previous self if there’s a 2024 debacle. KCR wants the people on his side desperately and can’t believe the Telangana people are happy in Revanth Reddy’s reign. In KCR’s feverish mind, Chief Minister Revanth Reddy is a failure of mammoth proportions.

KCR says there is no power to light up homes and streets; there is no water for irrigation and people have nowhere to go with their questions and problems. KCR is unhappy that Revanth Reddy’s Congress is in power and so Telangana’s voters must also be unhappy. What’s worse, the Bharatiya Janata Party is also not in KCR’s good books. KCR’s daughter K Kavitha is in a cell in Tihar Jail and KCR’s son KTR’s digital days are over and the BJP has a lot to answer.

Most importantly, however, KCR is hopping mad at the manner in which BRS legislators are being welcomed in the Congress. Reality is, BRS is being seen as a sinking brig with the rats jumping ship, torpedoing KCR’s spirits lower and further lower. The only solution is to reach out to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and enter into a seat-sharing deal with the mother-ship of alliances, the Bharatiya Janata Party. All the sins of omission and commission will be sunk and KCR wouldn’t have a dilemma to deal with. Why go through the rigours of candidate selection? Besides, doesn't the father in KCR want daughter K Kavitha home free, not shut up and singing like a canary? (IPA Service)