WAR OF DHARMA

If rival parties expected the Telangana Rashtra Samithi's (TRS) slim 10,000-vote victory margin in the crucial Munugode assembly bypoll to have sapped the will of its supremo K. Chandrashekar Rao (KCR), they miscalculated terribly.

- Amarnath K. Menon

If anything, the near-win seems to have only spurred the Telangana chief minister to go all guns blazing into campaign mode for the assembly election, even if it's a year away. Eyeing a third straight term in power, KCR has declared a 'dharma yuddh' (righteous war) on the BJP, now often seen as its main political adversary in the state. He exhorted party workers to wage a fierce battle against the fast-growing saffron party in order to "save the democratic system".

All his pronouncements shone with the confidence that comes to those who have everything at stake. "Every party worker should become a KCR and confront them. We need not fear or hesitate to call out their misdeeds.... They are becoming a threat to the entire nation," he told second-rung TRS leaders on November 15. He ruled out advancing the election like he had done six months before his first term as CM was to end in 2018. For good measure, to quell any misgivings that might perchance infect the ranks, he added that most sitting TRS MLAs will contest from their constituencies. What he rolled out, in effect, was a full 365-day battle plan.