In December 2018, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) party swept the Assembly elections by winning 88 out of the 119 seats. You would think that the party will be thrilled about this and would not need to worry about having to poach MLAs from other parties. Very mysteriously, TRS started to induct one Congress MLA after the other into their party, almost immediately after winning.

The Congress won 19 seats. From December 2018 to June 2019, 12 Congress MLAs joined the TRS, one after the other. One of the MLAs went on to become an MP, so the strength of Congress in the Assembly was 18. It was then that all the 12 MLAs went to the Speaker and “merged” the Congress Legislature party into the TRS. Why is the number 12 important here?

The anti-defection law prevents elected representatives from switching parties during their active term. The only exception being that if 2/3rds of your MLAs or MPs switch over. The law doesn’t state if all 2/3rds have to switch at the same time or can do one after the another. The law doesn’t define a timeframe for the Speaker or Chairperson of the House to decide. Using this loophole very conveniently, the then TRS party waited for 12 MLAs to join them and then the Speaker took an “expeditious” decision. Till date, it is baffling why KCR had to resort to this poaching when he didn’t need to do it.

In December 2023, the Congress party won the Assembly elections in Telangana. It won 64 out of the 119 seats. Its ally CPI won one seat. So, the Congress also doesn’t need to break the TRS (now BRS) to survive. However, the Congress party is following the exact strategy that the TRS followed back then. So far, 5 BRS MLAs have been inducted into the Congress party. In fact one of the MLAs who jumped back into the Congress party even contested on a Congress ticket for the Secunderabad MP seat.

The CM is openly telling that he will continue to break the BRS. There is active work going on that front. Former ministers and even the ex-Speaker has joined the Congress party after winning from the BRS, just 6 months back. Torchbearers of Democracy are silent on all of this. Upholders of the Constitution have suddenly forgotten that all of this is happening at the behest of Rahul Gandhi’s Congress. Probably under his guidance, who knows!

It is baffling how the Congress announces in its manifesto that it will bring a law to prevent poaching of elected representatives and poach them immediately after losing the elections. Actually, I take it back. It’s not baffling that the Congress is doing this. It is baffling that the loudest voices are stunningly silent on this chicanery of Rahul Gandhi.

Analysts in Telangana though have no love lost for the BRS. There is a unanimous opinion that the BRS is simply getting back their bad karma. The decimation of BRS in the Lok Sabha elections has certainly added to their woes and if their arrogant leadership continues on the same path, the decimation will be complete. However, this article is not about why BRS is faltering so badly.  

It is about Rahul Gandhi’s theatrics of holding a book with a red cover that he claims is the Constitution of India and his reality of violating that very book time and again.  Rahul Gandhi’s theatrics have been time and again rejected by the people of the country silently. The loudest voices though continue to hype his theatrics and ignore his real actions.

In Telangana, to break the BRS, the Congress party will have to poach 25 MLAs from BRS! The CM seems supremely confident that he will achieve this. If he does not, then there is a possibility that the court may intervene and call for elections of those who switched over. While politically, this makes for a good exciting future to look forward to, it also calls for a debate on Rahul Gandhi’s chicanery. 

Image source:Oneindia