Kingmaker sweepstakes? KCR, Jaganmohan Reddy & Chandrababu Naidu eye powerbroker role

HYDERABAD: The wait is finally over as Thursday’s counting of votes will reveal whether Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, his Andhra Pradesh counterpart N Chandrababu Naidu and opposition leader YS Jaganmohan Reddy will either emerge as kingmakers, be reduced to their regional turf or shunted into political oblivion. For the record, all three leaders are hoping that there is a fractured verdict in the Lok Sabha polls, so they have a big say on who will form the next government.
For the past one year, KCR has been asserting that a coalition of regional parties, minus the Congress and the BJP, will form the government at the Centre. And he also met leaders and chief ministers belonging to regional parties to cobble together a coalition.
The TRS president aims to win 16 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana (the 17th seat having been left to ally AIMIM) and together with Jagan, who hopes to win most of the 25 Lok Sabha seats in AP, contribute at least 40 seats to the Centre and emerge as kingmakers.
But if the exit polls do turn out to be accurate and the BJP-led NDA secures over 300 plus seats, then KCR’s dream of playing a big role in national politics will remain unfulfilled and he will continue to be a regional satrap.
The stakes in AP are bigger, with the results being a do-or-die situation for both Naidu and Jagan. Ever since the exit polls came out, Naidu has been criss-crossing the country and trying to put together an anti-BJP coalition of parties, who will rush to President Ram Nath Kovind, even as counting is underway and prevail upon him to call this group first to form the government.
But for the TDP chief to play a key role in national politics, no party or coalition should get simple majority and the TDP should return to power in AP and also win a large chunk of the 25 Lok Sabha seats in the state. If the actual results are same as what the exit polls pointed to, then Naidu will face political oblivion both in AP and in national politics for a long time to come. While Naidu and the TDP may survive for another five years, the YSR Congress could be in grave danger of extinction, if Jagan’s party does not do well in the elections.
Like Naidu, Jagan’s gamble is that the YSRCP will be swept to power in AP and also win a large chunk of the 25 Lok Sabha seats. A fractured verdict plus a big win in AP assembly and Lok Sabha elections, along with the TRS doing well in Telangana, will give the Jagan-KCR combination decisive roles in national politics.
But if Jagan does not do well in the AP assembly elections and the Lok Sabha polls, the YSRC president could see big desertions and face the impossible task of keeping the YSRC together for another five years.
On Wednesday evening, both TDP and YSRCP workers were stocking huge piles of firecrackers in the hope that Thursday would be their day.