Why it rained for the BJP only in Telangana, but not in Andhra?

HYDERABAD: It has been incessantly raining in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh for the last one week. While Telangana Chief Minister KCR has shown his grit and determination to organise a massive rally to endorse the candidacy of Yashwant Sinha in Hyderabad, the BJP, after making a pompous announcement of rebutting the KCR show with a reply through a grandiose programme for NDA nominee Draupadi Murmu, chickened out.

The reason cited for the cancellation of Murmu's visit to Hyderabad was torrential rains and inclement weather, but what is not said was the party developed 'cold feet' owing to an embarrassment.

The BJP organised a gala National Executive meeting in Hyderabad on July 2 and 3 followed by an impressive public rally at Parade Grounds in Secunderabad. Just around the same time, hours before Prime Minister Narendra Modi descended on Begumpet Airport, KCR had received Sinha and organised a bike rally and went ballistic on the BJP's rule at a meeting that ensured.

The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) is not part of any of the opposition camps or conglomerates, yet it attested its support to Sinha's candidacy, precisely to oppose the BJP's official nominee.

The BJP's Telangana unit announced that Ms Murmu would visit Hyderabad to meet her electors and the party would oragnise an event with glory and grandeur. Telangana has just four MPs and three MLAs who would vote for her. Yet, as if to show their muscle power, the BJP tried to put up a brave front. But, the programme of the Presidential nominee was called off in the nick of the minute, as the "quorum" was too small and the show planned could prove to be too costly. This forced the BJP to chicken out, even though Ms Murmu's victory as the President of India is a foregone conclusion.

Interestingly, the troika of the BJP MLAs Raja Singh, Etala Rajender and M Raghunandan Rao, who had to eat crow, went and called on Ms Murmu in Goa on Thursday to extend their support to her. Though the courtesy meeting of a president-to-be is very much alright, they indeed lost face what with their boisterous announcements of a lavish reception to her that never happened. The four BJP MPs, however, did not follow suit.

Union Minister G Kishen Reddy, however, accompanied the NDA's aspirant for India's top job to Amaravati, where Andhra Pradesh Government received her with state honours on June 12. Andhra Pradesh was also equally battered by the incessant rains and floods across the State. However, rain did not become an excuse for her to skip a visit to AP.

Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy, who had drafted his representative MPs Vijaya Sai Reddy and Mithun Reddy for her nomination prorgamme, also hosted her a small tea party and arranged "blessings by priests" at his official residence. He later accompanied her to a meet with the elected representatives of his party in the Assembly and the Lok Sabha.

Later, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), which was left out in the political cacophony preceding the choice of presidential nominees by the NDA and the UPA, did a 'face-saving' exercise by extending 'unsolicited' support to Ms Murmu by indulging in hectic lobbying with the powers-that-be in Delhi. Even then, the party remained the second preference for the BJP. Ms Murmu participated in a meeting of 19 MLAs, and three MPs of the TDP, along with its president N Chandrababu Naidu.

Interestingly, four TDP MLAs -- Karanam Balaram (Chirala), Vallabhaneni Vamsi (Gannavaram), Maddali Giri (Guntur West) and Vasupalli Ganesh Kumar (Visakhapatnam South), who crossed the floor to the YSR Congress, and the impudent YSRC MP K Raghu Ramakrishnam Raju would also vote for Ms Murmu, thus avoiding the conflict of "acceding to" or "defying" their respective party whips. A political disagreement with the lines taken by their respective parties would have come as a golden opportunity for the parties to axe them, though.