The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) led by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, jubilant over its massive win in the recent Punjab Assembly elections, wants to test the political landscape in Telangana for a second time. This move may become a bitter deal for the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), whose chief and state CM K Chandrashekar Rao is bidding to build a non-Congress Third Front against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
According to the AAP’s Telangana leaders, they are focusing on building the party and expanding its cadre base across the state. Though the party was started in 2012 before the reorganisation of Andhra Pradesh, it made its electoral debut in the 2018 Assembly elections by contesting in 41 out of the 119 seats. All the candidates lost their deposits and they could garner only 13,500 votes in total.
Burra Ramu Goud, a senior Telangana AAP leader and the party’s Search Committee member, speaking to TNM said that they are launching a Padayatra (rally on foot) from April 14 on the eve of the birth anniversary of BR Ambedkar. The rally would have "Samajika Telangana" (Social Justice for Telangana). The route of the padayatra is yet to be finalised.
Ruling out the possibility of the AAP joining the coalition led by Chief Minister KCR, Ramu Goud said it was pure speculation. “Our leadership neither expressed interest nor gave any appointment to any TRS leader to negotiate about any front.”
Ramu Goud said the AAP is committed to corruption-free politics and administration. “We believe that there is scope for an alternative. The Padayatra will change the political equations in the state and more people will join the party," he said.
In the first week of March, KCR's plan to meet Kejriwal to deliberate on a national-level front to defeat the BJP did not materialise as hoped. He had also reached out to his counterparts in Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Maharashtra, and to the President of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
The AAP’s national leadership has already indicated that their next political arena is Telangana and that they would take on the ruling TRS. In a recent press meet, AAP’s south India in-charge and a Delhi MLA Somnath Bharti made a sharp attack on the TRS government calling KCR a “messiah of corruption”. He alleged that KCR himself was engaging in corruption while claiming to put an end to it in the state. Bharti also accused him of wasting thousands of crores from the state treasury.
According to Ramu Goud, the AAP leadership is of the view that corruption is a major issue in the state. The party believes that there was corruption in the Kaleshwaram irrigation project. The AAP has also alleged that there is increase in the wealth of TRS lawmakers and the party is bringing other MLAs into its fold through “corrupt means”.
The party’s state unit claimed that it will have brighter prospects in the days to come as several retired IAS and IPS officers are set to join them after Kejriwal's Telangana visit. Besides the promise to fight corruption, the AAP said that it will work to improve the quality of education, healthcare and infrastructure in Telangana, which is currently in a “dismal” state.
The TRS on the other hand is perplexed by the development as they did not see it coming. Party sources, however, dismissed reports about the aborted meet between Kejriwal and KCR, saying that no such meeting was planned as their leader had health check-ups scheduled on that day.
When TNM asked whether AAP figures in their list of parties to be roped in for the Third Front and if they have plans to meet Kejriwal, Ranjith Reddy, a senior TRS leader and MP representing Chevella, said they are not inviting any party in particular. “We are going to the public, telling them the problems that the country is facing. Whoever wants to join can join,” he said.
When asked about the AAP's plans to venture into Telangana politics, the MP said they are free to come and contest elections in the state. “When it comes to the national agenda we will shake hands with them, what's wrong with that?” Reddy asked.