Since the formation of Telangana state, politics of Telangana is dominated by Telangana Rastra Samithi (TRS). In 2014 Telangana held first-ever assembly election after formation of Telangana as a separate state. During these elections, people of Telangana rewarded the TRS party and its leader Kalvakuntla ChandraShekar Rao, popularly known as KCR, for their contribution in the long struggle of formation of Telangana. At the time of Telangana’s formation TRS, TDP, Congress, BJP, and AIMIM were the major political parties in the state.

Since then, TRS party and KCR primarily focused on the elimination of the opposition from the state. In this process, KCR has succeeded to an extent. He is successfully able to make Telugu Desam Party (TDP) an irrelevant player in the Telangana state. Most of the prominent TDP leaders joined TRS and very few joined Congress. After that KCR started weakening the Congress party by poaching senior congress leaders. He was partially successful in this process. As most of the prominent Congress leaders such as D. Srinivas, former President of Andhra Pradesh Congress and many of the senior congress leaders joined the TRS party and few of them even became ministers in the TRS government.

After successfully able to manage TDP and Congress parties, KCR turned his eyes on elevating his son, KTR in the party and grooming him to be next Chief Minister of the state. During this process of elevating KTR, KCR sidelined Harish Rao, nephew of KCR and second most powerful leader in the TRS. Harish Rao has a huge base inside the TRS, KCR is slowly making him irrelevant in the TRS, to make way for the son KTR. KTR has been appointed as working president of the TRS party. There is huge anger in the Harish camp, there is huge churn going on inside TRS party as well. Harish camp will remain silent as long as KCR is CM, but it is now an open secret that KCR is waiting for the right time to handover the CM Post to his son KTR. One thing is for sure, though Harish camp did not take any major action after elevating KTR to working president, it will not be the same when KCR hands over the CM post.

As TDP became irrelevant in the Telangana Polity, Congress is much weaker now in the state than it was in 2014. Most of the senior congress leaders left the party, some other leaders are waiting to leave the party as there is huge leadership vacuum both in the state and center. AIMIM playing second fiddle in the state to TRS, there is not much scope for it to grow in the state. One must admit that KCR has kept the tight grip on the party and government till a few months back.

However, recent incidents in the state indicate that KCR slowly but steadily losing the grip on the party and governance at the same time. Major TRS leaders primarily Harish Rao camp and leaders who were sidelined slowly coming out in the open and challenging KCR and his son KTR. Recently prominent TRS leader, one of the founding member of TRS and Health Minister of Telangana State, Etela Rajender, openly challenged KCR about the ownership of the party. So far, KCR did not react to this comment, but KTR was quick and immaturely tried to cow down Eetela. Soon, former Home Minister of Telangana, Nayini Narsimha Reddy —who got sidelined and did not get any ministerial berth in the current government, supported the view of Etela. Slowly, few other MLAs who were part of the party for a long time started supporting Etela.

One might think these are common reactions of disgruntled politicians, but looking at these strategic statements one after another and supporting each other by these leaders indicate that there is a huge trouble brewing within TRS. Statements and actions of these leaders are just a tip of the ice-berg.

It appears that KCR’s nephew Harish Rao activated his camp to take head-on the father-son duo in the long run. It is an open secret in the state that KTR and Harish Rao infight in the TRS is more than just political rivalry. It is also doubtful that experienced leader like Etela would make such comments without proper support within the party from big leaders like Harish Rao. Political infight in TRS is causing damage not just to TRS but due to these fights TRS is also losing focus on the governance at large. There is huge shortage in the Urea for farmers in the state. And huge spike in the cases of dengue in the state is another major concern. Overall, governance in the tatters for the past few months due to political infight in the TRS.

Soon, KCR sensed the danger and started the damage control by inducting Harish Rao into the cabinet of Telangana along with KTR. These inductions and expansion of the cabinet might give temporary relief to KCR, but not in the long run. Moreover, the elevation of his son KTR to CM post will be delayed. The split of TRS is now more inevitable than ever.

Coming to BJP, the party that punched below the weight in the past two state assembly elections, recently in the 2019 general elections showed some promising results for future by bagging 4 MP seats. These 2019 results energized the cadre. Huge number of leaders making their way into the BJP after these results. State leadership and central leadership is strategically coordinating and leaving no stone unturned to take head on the ruling TRS. By doing so, BJP is sending a clear message in the state that it is an only true alternative to TRS in the state, though they have a single member in the current state assembly. Misgovernance of TRS and infight within the TRS party, strong central leadership of BJP, and hard work of the state BJP leaders and cadre are the idle conditions for BJP to grow. In fact, it is inevitable for BJP to grow in the state further as it has already gained critical political mass in the state. However, state BJP should not wait for things to happen and react to them, instead they should proactively take steps to highlight the failures of TRS government and educate the masses about the TRS government’s failures.