It’s raining money in Telangana

Welcome to Powertrip, a newsletter exclusively curated for TNM Subscribers. In this issue, we talk about the Telangana election - the tons of money being spent on it, the role of social media influencers, how narratives are being controlled and Congress's positive push. To read Powertrip every week, subscribe to TNM now..Inside TrackExclusive stories, for your eyes only..Powertrip aims to give our loyal readers the inside scoop from the corridors of power every week. In the October 13 newsletter, we told you about how a ‘transfer mafia’ is haunting the Siddaramaiah government. This week the Karnataka CM’s son Yathindra has been accused of running a transfer mafia after a video of him giving orders to the CMO staff came out. While the context of the phone conversation involving Yathindra isn’t clear, there certainly is dissatisfaction over a transfer mafia in the state. Remember readers, you heard it first here.This week’s Powertrip is a Telangana election special edition. The big, fat Telangana election It’s raining money in Telangana, with the elections turning out to be a massively expensive affair. Several candidates TNM spoke to said that the average budget for each candidate is around Rs 30 crore – far higher than the average of Rs 20 crore spent in Karnataka earlier this year. In some constituencies, where industrialists and businesspersons are contesting, the sum spent by candidates is expected to go up to a whopping Rs 50 crore.Surprisingly, the biggest expense isn’t bribes for voters but paying party cadres and booth-level workers – so they’ll turn up for rallies, bring in the crowds, go door to door, etc. One political leader TNM spoke to claimed that he is not bribing voters in his constituency, but still has to shell out Rs 10 crore this election.So where is the money coming from? If candidates aren’t shelling out money from their own pockets, then they’re turning to their friends in business. With some of India’s richest politicians coming from Telangana, it’s no surprise that the state is witnessing a big, fat election. And yes, the Election Commission’s Rs 40 lakh cap is a cruel joke. Stay tuned for ground reports on this soon. The social media influencer election WhatsApp is passé. While the 2014 and 2019 polls saw the BJP and several other parties using WhatsApp to reach out to voters and spread the party’s message – as well as misinformation against rivals – 2023 is the year of social media influencers and surrogate advertising.TNM has learnt that the BRS has hired a social media influencer agency for their poll campaign. The agency in turn gets a number of influencers to churn out political ads in the form of YouTube shorts and Instagram reels. It’s not too tough to spot these ads – they all have a pink hue, praise government schemes, and never directly ask for votes. Countering & controlling the narrative So why is the ruling party in Telangana turning to social media influencers? Shouldn’t their star campaigner CM KCR be enough?An internal survey has found that the party has not been too successful in countering the BJP and Congress’s narrative against the BRS. For two years, the BJP and Congress have painted the BRS and KCR as corrupt, alleging that Telangana’s first family has made a lot of money in the last decade.The BRS senior leadership has in recent weeks questioned why they did not control the narrative against them and whether they were complacent. It’s during these internal discussions that the party realised that it had seriously underestimated anti-incumbency as a factor. Congress’s positive push in the final leg The Congress campaign in Telangana is taking a new turn as polling approaches. From November 18, the Congress will be going ahead with a positive campaign instead of indulging in a negative one. Sources said the party is choosing to focus on its promises and guarantees rather than attacking the BRS government and CM KCR.The positive push by the Congress in the final stretch of campaigning may have been triggered by P Chidamabram’s controversial remarks. The former Union Minister apologised for the lives lost during the Telangana statehood agitation but said that the Union government cannot be held responsible for the suicides. The BRS was quick to react, with several leaders including KTR and Harish Rao hitting out at the Congress.The Congress too believes that Chidambaram’s comments may not have gone down well with voters as it has reminded them that the Union government was led by the Congress during the Telangana agitation and hundreds of lives were lost for the statehood movement. The party has now instructed its senior leaders, including Chidambaram, to not speak about the Telangana movement. Clear talking points have also been given for those campaigning in the state. 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