Kiran to face the last ball on bouncy pitch

Hyderabad: For Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, the former cricketer who has turned rebel against the party establishment, floating a rival cricket team may not be a smooth affair.

Kiran, who had famously used cricketing analogy to make light of the bifurcation process, finds himself on a bouncy track and facing unfavourable weather conditions.Politics, like cricket, is a team sport.

As a wicket-keeper batsman, who had captained the Hyderabad Under-25 team, Kiran knows it better than the most. His inability to put together a team of loyalists has pushed him into a dilemma over floating a new party on the Samaikyandhra plank. Even in the best of times, Kiran is not known to have many friends in the party

It is doubtful how many Seemandhra elected representatives will be willing to follow him in the event of his launching a party. On its part, the Congress high command has been making efforts to wean the Seemandhra party leaders away from the Chief Minister's influence and convince them to abide by the bifurcation decision.

Already, several senior Seemandhra leaders, including Union Ministers, MPs and MLAs have resigned to the inevitability of the State's division.

Though majority of them would sing the Samaikyandhra tune during the debate on the draft Telangana bill, expected to start in the Assembly from Monday, not many of them are likely to toe the line of Kiran in quitting the Congress and floating a new outfit, as they prefer to sail with the Congress for good or bad.

"CM is not a position to make up his mind to launch a new party, though he is under pressure from his loyalists to do so. Given his track record unfriendly disposition, there are not many takers among the Seemandhra senior leaders for the idea of a new party"

In fact, the Chief Minister himself is not a position to make up his mind to launch a party of his own, though he is coming under pressure from a section of his loyalists to do so, given the unfavourable conditions.

Given his track record unfriendly disposition, there are not many takers among the Seemandhra senior leaders for the idea of a new party.

Despite his aggressive posturing, Kiran is likely to wait till the end of the ongoing Assembly session before formulating his future strategy to save his political career in Seemandhra.

Several challenges are staring in the face of the Chief Minister as he prepares for a political life after bifurcation. One of them is the paucity of time for floating a new party as general elections are hardly four months away. He may not get enough funding to contest all the Parliament and Assembly seats and this would be a big stumbling block in his way.

But the most important question to answer is how many would follow him in Seemandhra. Already, several Seemandhra Congress legislators have reserved their placements in other parties, mainly YSR Congress Party and Telugu Desam Party.

A majority of the followers of Union Minister K Chiranjeevi are set to join Telugu Desam party. Those from north Andhra are raring to join the YSR Congress.

On the other hand, old hats of the Congress would prefer to stay back as they could not find suitable place in other political outfits. These calculations would leave the Chief Minister with only a handful of loyal legislators who would walk out of the party along with him. At the same time, Kiran cannot go back on the new party proposal at this stage.

After raising the pitch for Samaiky-andhra and positioning himself as a champion of the cause of integrated state, he cannot obviously beat the retreat and continue in the party. Such a course will expose him to the charge of striking a deal with the Congress central leadership.

Over the past few months, Kiran has been carefully crafting an aggressive self-image and using every conceivable occasion to assert that he would fight till the end to prevent division of the State.

With the Samaikyandhra rhetoric in press conferences and with dramatic moves like stripping D Sridhar Babu of Legislative Affairs portfolio and lofty speeches in programmes like the one during the inauguration of Pulichintala project, he has created an aura of a crusader around himself.

Bowing to the party line after so much of hype would seriously damage his personal credibility and image and it would lend credence to the allegations of TDP and YSRCP.

This would send the message that all his Samaikyandhra rhetoric was a drama enacted only to see the smooth passage of Telangana Bill in the Assembly and in Parliament.

And the CM would not have political future if he fails to float a new party after emerging as a tall leader in the State politics as he does not have good relations with the party high command for getting a coveted post after the bifurcation of the State.