Conversion of an ordinary agreement between two states into a wave of Telangana sentiment by the TRS supremo K Chandrasekhar Rao, amid series of victories for the party in local and byelections to the Assembly and Parliament, is certain to  have an intimidating effect on the opposition parties. This will be more intense in the case of those MLAs of Telugu Desam and Congress, who are a bit hesitant to jump the fence.

Maganti Gopinath and Arikepudu Gandhi,both TDP MLAs, who belonged to the much maligned category of ‘settlers’ once by TRS, are reportedly joining the party in a day or two. They met the chief minister. Yesterdays’ mobilization and resurgence of Telangana sentiment has the potential to strengthen their resolve to quit the TDP and join the TRS. The two MLAs might have frightened by the KCR’s capacity to deploy the T-sentiment whenever necessary.Ever since Gopinath’s name cropped up in the cash-for-vote scam, there have been reports that he is bound to gravitate to the ruling party.

Yesterday’s redeployment of of T-cultural nationalism is a planned exercise. Chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, who trod give and take path to prevail upon the Maharashtra government to sign the agreement for sharing of Godavari waters, must have expected backlash from the opposition parties. He might have given up some claims for some gains for Telangana much to the disappointment of opposition parties. KCR mobilised the pink panthers on a massive scale to silence these forces by raking up again the Telangana cultural nationalism. while Congress and TDP displayed their indignation in the issuing damning statements, the fainthearted MLAs are certain to fall prey to the KCR strategy. So, the upsurge of pink wave is expected expedite the process of defections from  these two parties to TRS.

KCR’s strength lies in his capacity of converting every event into Telangana cultural nationalism. Once the idea of cultural nationalism catches up it would have tsunami like effect on alternative opinions as it was witnessed during the T-movement and is being seen in the current round of elections across the state. Meanwhile, opposition parties cried foul over the agreement and both TDP and Congress described it sold out to Maharashtra.

Mohammed Ali Shabbir, opposition leader in T-Legislative Council, TPCC chief spokesperson Dr Sravan Dasoju, TPCC working president Bhatti Vikramarkha termed this as “Maha Daga” (Mega Cheating) and said March 8 would go down as Black Tuesday in the history of Telangana. They said the celebration was meant to divert the people’s attention from and cover up  the massive corruption in Mission Baghiratha and other projects. Dasoju said it had become new strategy of KCR to attack opposition parities criticism of corruption with T-sentiment. Dasoju  saw a conspiracy in the KCR’s acquiescing to whatever Maharashtra dictated with regard to the Telangana projects at the mediation of Maha governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao. Dasoju alleged KCR traded state interests with that of his personal interests that is to make his daughter Kavita, Nizambad MP, a union minister.

“The agreement is injustice because the height of the barrages that would be constructed on Godavari was decreased to 148 meters from the earlier proposal of 152 meters. The barrages are coming up at Medigadda, Tummidi-Haiti on Pranahita, Chanakha-Korata on Penganga, Pinpahad and Rajapeta,” the Congress leaders said.
Similar sentiments had been echoed by TDP floor leader Revanth Reddy and T-TDP president L Ramana. Revanth Reddy demanded clarity of the designs of all projects in the light of the agreement with Maharashtra.