In the heat of an election campaign, several narratives take shape, sometimes just to whip up the sentiments in the hope of better results delivered.
Making Hyderabad a Union Territory (UT), an issue that had found support at the time of State bifurcation, once again came to the fore in the Parliament elections with the BRS working president and former IT Minister K. T. Rama Rao warning that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was hell bent on turning Hyderabad into a UT.
He was hinting at the possibility of the BJP government, if it returns to power, making Hyderabad a UT from June 2 when Hyderabad’s status would be altered a little bit as it loses the status of combined capital of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana as per the arrangement made in the AP Reorganisation Act 2014.
Andhra Pradesh continued to enjoy Hyderabad as its capital for 10 years from 2014 to 2024. As the 10-year period comes to an end next month Telangana will have full rights over assets in Hyderabad though in the administrative aspect, it had full rights since 2014.
However, Mr. KTR chose to rake up the issue a couple of times during his campaign in the last four days apparently to instill fear among the people that BJP would forever take away Hyderabad and try to gain full control over its resources.
The timing of Mr. KTR’s claims sounded purely political and he could not substantiate his claims though he claimed the indications from the BJP were towards it. Congress party was also on his radar as he claimed that the Congress government in Telangana neither had the intentions nor the capacity to stop the BJP’s move. So the only way to counter the BJP’s alleged moves was to give majority seats to the BRS in the Parliament.
Union Minister G. Kishan Reddy termed the claims as absolutely rubbish and went on to use some harsh words like ‘Idiotic claims.’ “Why on earth does the BJP want to make Hyderabad the UT,” he asked and said it only reflected the bankruptcy of BRS ideas.
If it’s a political narrative that KTR wants to create he has some interest given the fact that the majority of MLA seats in Hyderabad are under the BRS belt. Out of the 24 seats under the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) area, the BRS has won 16 seats and its friendly party in the Assembly elections AIMIM won 7 while the BJP’s Raja Singh won in Goshamahal. The Congress failed to open its account.
By raking up the UT status controversy Mr. KTR might be addressing the voters in those constituencies to retain them in the Parliament elections as well as also in the rural areas of Telangana which just cannot conceive the idea of Telangana without Hyderabad.. Congress says KTR’s political intentions are quite clear and it would never let Hyderabad be taken out of Telangana’s political map even if the BJP’s intentions are doubtful.
In fact, it was the Congress MPs who fought tooth and nail with their high command during the time of State bifurcation when there was a proposal to make Hyderabad a UT to satisfy the people of Andhra Pradesh who were hurt by the bifurcation. Several Union Ministers from Andhra Pradesh at that time made open claims seeking UT status to Hyderabad but the then Congress-led UPA government rejected the idea.
Irrespective of Mr. KTR’s intentions, the idea of UT has certainly forced the BJP on the backfoot and they are busy condemning any such move.
