Blood, Sweat And TRS

KCR's 'Sop Saturation' Strategy Wins The TRS A Landslide And A Second Term

- Amarnath K. Menon

For the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and its founder K. Chandrashekar Rao (KCR), a second consecutive assem­ bly poll win was made sweeter by being even more emphatic than the one that brought him to power in 2014. Having called for an early poll—eight months ahead of schedule—and sustained a long 90­day election campaign, the TRS converted incumbency into a phenomenal poll gain, riding on Telangana pride and pro­people welfare. The gamble clicked and with it “the po­ litical fragility” he had referred to as the trigger for dissolv­ ing the first Telangana legislative assembly receded.

The TRS has crushed the long­standing hypothesis of political pundits that larger turnouts are bad news for the party in power. The party, which won 63 seats in the 119­member house in 2014, bagged 88 on December 11. KCR reminded voters of the benefits handed out under a slew of schemes—both welfare­oriented and direct free­ bies—and they seem to have been convinced that the CM has their best interests at heart.

The ‘sop saturation’ strategy, making sure that the benefits of at least three schemes reached every disadvan­taged family in the state, assured that some 40,000 voters in every constituency became diehard KCR supporters, pledging support as thanks for what he had done.