No end in sight to party hopping as poll day draws closer

Telangana Assembly election process sees unprecedented party-hopping by denied ticket holders and second-rung leaders. Hoping to gain votes, opposition parties offer nominated posts and other elected posts while ruling party gives nominated posts and promises more. Last-minute entrants pipped long-timers & even candidate's son deserted father mid-campaign.

hyderabad

The ongoing election process to the Telangana Assembly is witnessing changing of parties at breakneck speed, more than ever in the past, by those who were denied tickets by parties they had been associated with till the other day and the second-rung leaders who have influence on sections of electors, although only 11 days are left for the polling day.

“The hopping of parties by politicians is so intense that it will put to shame even the frogs, rabbits, kangaroos and other animals which specialise in it as part of their life-cycle. The instances of leaders leaving a party, joining the other and rejoining the party he/she left first are many over the last one month or so,” a senior leader of the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), which too has encouraged such crossovers, said.

Kumbham Anil Kumar Reddy — the Congress candidate for Bhongir, who quit the party only a couple of weeks before the announcement of the poll schedule, joined BRS and returned to Congress to become the candidate — is an example of the few leaders who made their hopping full circle. Some like Tula Uma (BJP) have joined BRS after being named as candidates but B-Forms were given to others.

Several last-minute entrants into the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have pipped those associated with the party for long and aspired for a ticket this time and have secured the party tickets forcing the exit of long-timers although the parties have managed some dissidents.

The situation is so clumsy that it is very difficult to identify which leader is with which party at the village, Mandal and constituency level now, the BRS leader said, adding that they too had to encourage such crossovers due to political compulsions. Every vote matters in the keen three-cornered contest this time and the parties are hopeful that those joining hands with them even in the last minute would bring at least some votes along with them.

While the opposition parties have been trying to win over those in the rival parties by promising them nominated posts and opportunities to contest other elected posts such as MP, MLC, Zilla Parishad Chairperson, and many others if voted to power, the ruling party has also been making such promises in addition to giving nominated posts to at least a few of them already.