KCR is cozying up to BJP at the Centre to save TRS from further fall

Hyderabad: The commoner began to notice a marked change in Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao after the elections to Dubbaka and Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC). The change becomes more perceptible and conspicuous especially after Chandrasekhar Rao who is popularly known as KCR has met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi a week after the GHMC election results.
The KCR’s Telangana Rashtra Samithi suffered a major dent in the GHMC elections and lost its sitting Dubbaka Assembly seat to the BJP. Thus, the election results indicated a saffron surge in the KCR’s home turf.
In the run up to the elections, the TRS patriarch went into combative mode to become messiah of Muslim minorities and farmers. His party MPs voted against the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Bill and the farm bills. Rao even expressed his resolve to host an anti-BJP opposition conclave in Hyderabad after the elections.
The poll setback left the KCR’s camp gloomy and its leader remained reticent in his farm house for a full fortnight since he met with Amit Shah on December 12.
The Chief Minister presented himself on Sunday at Pragathi Bhavan, his official residence in the state capital, only to make a U-turn from his avowed fight against the BJP and its dispensation in Delhi.
Toeing the NDA line?  And, the public perception over his U-turn has gained credence when he made some policy changes relating to agriculture. The changes the CM sought to bring about were in perfect sync with the tenets of the NDA’s reforms in the farm sector which his party opposed tooth and nail in the Parliament. Exit of the state government from the business of paddy procurement by scrapping the village level paddy purchase centres is one of such policy changes. “After all, paddy procurement taken up by our government to insulate farmers from market shocks left a huge burden of Rs 7,500crore on the state exchequer in the last six years of TRS rule. So there will not be the role of the government in the market any longer,” KCR said, unveiling the policy changes.  He further added, “The government is neither a business firm, nor a miller to procure food grains. The farmers can sell their produce anywhere”. This obviously means deprival of market intervention for the growers to ensure minimum support price in the coming days.