Always elections meant for prestige issue till voting, then it becomes voters pride. In Telangana’s Manugodu assembly constituency is heading towards prestige over pride between political parties and intelligent voters. Everybody is trying to satisfying their egos.
According to reports and the current trend of elections, particularly byelections, the Munugode byelection on November 3 is expected to set a record for spending money.
Three parties—two national parties and the ruling TRS—have engaged in a ferocious struggle for a famous victory. The Congress wants to keep its seat in order to demonstrate both its strength and its contempt for the betrayal of its candidate. To further its intended growth in the State, the BJP intends to seize the seat. The TRS seeks to avenge the BJP for the botched byelections in Huzurabad and Dubbaka and put an end to the uproar around its ascent in the State.
False Objections
The byelection’s actual urgency is debatable. In order to join the BJP and run as the party’s candidate in the election to give the party a chance to take on the TRS, the incumbent candidate resigned from the Congress and called for a byelection. Although the letter of Rajgopal Reddy’s resignation and joining the BJP may be correct, the spirit is not. The bad motives are extremely obvious.
Of course, the BJP has made such elections the new normal. If we see the happenings in the last eight years, in 10-12 States the BJP won elections by manipulating governments, with splits, links and several other dubious means. Winning elections or forming governments by hook or crook has become more important than ethics and democracy. The whole atmosphere is so vitiated, nobody knows who is in which party and which party is in power in the States at a given point. It is so ephemeral that it can change in just days, though the legislators” or State governments’ tenure is supposed to be for five years. In comparison, similar shenanigans by the Congress earlier now look like small-time plays.
In the grand scheme of saffronisation of India, the BJP has been assiduously working on the spread of it in the States since 2014. In the case of Telangana (TS), which too came into existence in 2014, though the BJP supported the statehood during the campaign, it was on the fence in the end. In the deciding moments in Parliament, it almost backtracked but a section of the party prevented it. Narendra Modi and his Home Minister Amit Shah both have found fault with the method of formation of the new State and openly said it in Parliament and outside of it. They were partial to residual Andhra Pradesh for political reasons.
Harassments at the Center
In order to gain support for its bills in Parliament during the first term, the Modi government maintained a neutral position with the TS government. As its standing in the Rajya Sabha improved, it began to distance itself from the TS government. The gap widened towards the conclusion of the first term. In the 2019 elections, the BJP won 4 MP seats in the State. This fueled its ambition, and it began to saffronize TS through political and economic means. Interim elections served as electoral robberies against the State. Due to its marginally better success in these elections, it stepped up the tempo of its territorial battle. The local BJP leadership was prodded to go all out in trying to damage the image of the TRS with repeated unfounded allegations.
The BJP started applying financial squeeze on TS. Many projects slated for TS were diverted to other States. There were inordinate delays in releasing the regular funds and grants from the Centre. No central funds as recommended by the national institutions were sanctioned to the State. It refused to reimburse the rice procurement cost causing a very heavy financial burden to the State. It also caused trouble in granting permission for loans even within the agreed FRBM limits. Virtually, a financial siege was laid on TS by the Centre. Even for the projects earlier cleared and appreciated, problems are being created deliberately, affecting their progress or completion.
TS was singled out for high-octane political bullying. The BJP national executive meeting was conducted in Hyderabad and the whole of the BJP pantheon descended on the city in a big ostentatious show of strength. National BJP leaders were allotted to all the 119 constituencies for canvassing and local leaders were primed and allowed to make increased propaganda on the fictitious misrule and failure of economic development in the State. But all this did not work.
As if it was not enough, the BJP raked up Hyderabad State integration day on September 17, not celebrated for 60 years for several political reasons. The BJP taking advantage of the Hindu-Muslim element involved in it, tried to cause religious strife in the State. Regrettably, the Home Minister who is supposed to be the keeper of peace of the nation led the attempt. A Hyderabad liberation day was organised in Hyderabad presided over by the Home Minister, against the three-day State National Integration Day. Deservedly, the ulterior attempt failed miserably. The whole State celebrated National Integration Day with the spirit of nationality. Muslim political outfits and the Muslim population too joined the celebration exhibiting a great spirit of nationalism.
Undemocratic
In order to put the TRS and the TS administration in a pickle and prevent any progress being made, the BJP developed a fresh ruse by forcing the byelection in Munugode. The goal is to defeat the TRS in a byelection before the subsequent general elections in order to gain ground in the State. It is an odd political idea. Politically intimidating, financially strangling, and attempting to incite religious conflict against a State are all extremely undemocratic. And now, forcing a phoney byelection in an effort to win over the State is an obviously bad political move. Actually, there was election fraud in the Munugode byelection.
Here, the incumbent Congress legislator is made to resign and join the BJP to force the byelection. And he becomes the official candidate of the BJP in the seat vacated by himself. It is an open secret that he was given a Rs 18,000-21,000-crore contract for a project by the central government in a quid pro quo for enacting this fraud. It is reported that the candidate himself has vouchsafed it in public. There cannot be any more damning proof of perfidy than this.
The Center should not have permitted such election fraud. India is not a banana republic; rather, it is the largest democracy in the world. #KhabarLive #hydnews #hydlive
