Congress leader Sonia Gandhi.
Credit: PTI Photo
Hyderabad: On September 17, Sonia Gandhi announced the six guarantees for Telangana, saying, “I, along with my colleagues, had the opportunity to be part of the birth of this great state of Telangana. It has been my dream to see a Congress government in Telangana that will work for every section of society. Are you going to support us? Jai Hind.. Jai Telangana.”
Now, days ahead of Sonia Gandhi's birthday which falls on December 9, Telangana voters have given her a valuable gift: an overwhelming mandate for the Congress.
The Congress had only six seats in Telangana, till Sunday’s verdict overturned its fortunes.
Though it was Congress-led UPA that had carved out Telangana from Andhra Pradesh, bowing to the aspirations of the people in this region, the grand old party was so riddled with internal rift and weak local leadership, that it could not take capitalise on the formation of the new state in 2014.
BRS supremo, K Chandrashekar Rao, on the other hand, took the credit of Telangana by successfully milching the statehood struggle, and ensuring that his party ruled the state for two terms.
However, there was a strong anti-incumbency wave during the second term. Sniffing this, another national party, the BJP, decided to give stiff competition to the Congress. However, the party lost its momentum when it replaced Karimnagar MP, Bandi Sanjay, with Union Minister, G Kishan Reddy, as BJP state unit chief. This backfired for the BJP and it worked in favour of the Congress.
On its part, the Congress was quick to build a narrative that the BJP and the BRS were hand-in-glove and asserted that it was the only alternative to the BRS. With the slogan of Maarpu Kavali, Congress Ravali and its six guarantees that were widely publicised across the state, the Congress could win the trust of the voters. The Congress also pleaded with the electorate to give the party that had carved Telangana a chance.
Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra also created a sort of ripple effect on the party's leadership in the state. This was made more potent when the Congress won in neighbouring Karnataka. During the Yatra, Rahul had met the Telangana leaders, who were at odds with the Congress and managed to bring them all together.
All these, in a way, worked for the grand old party to finally claim its place in the Assembly of the nine-year-old state.