Telangana Chief Minister Kalvakuntla Chandrasekhar Rao’s jibe against prime minister Narendra Modi as the ‘weakest PM’ India has ever had or seen in independent India and endorsing former prime minister Indira Gandhi’s bold decision to impose ‘President’s rule” indeed may become yet another strong ‘electoral tool’ for the saffron party, which is bent upon to make inroads.
What prompted KCR to conclude that Modi is the weakest PM?  
Was it because the Centre decided to tighten the noose around his neck over misappropriation of Central funds like many regional parties and stake claim on central welfare and infra projects as their own?  Or is it a deliberate provocation to force the Centre to act against alleged graft charges against him and his family members, so that he can play the ‘victim card’ ahead of elections?  Or his latest ‘friend in arm’ and poll strategist Prashant Kishor giving no hopes of his party returning to power in the upcoming assembly elections, who told him that his party cannot win not more than 25-30 seats as in another 40-45, the sitting MLAs have become a liability due to their non-performance.
KCR frustration began when the Centre refused to accept his ‘Dalit Bandhu’ scheme to be included in the last Union budget, which sparked him to hold out veiled threats of reviving his ‘Third Front” effort to form an alternative to the Congress and BJP. As his proposal had no takers, despite his visits to West Bengal to hold parleys with TMC Chief Mamata Banerjee, or to Maharashtra to meet Nationalist Congress supremo Sharad Pawar and Udhav Thackeray of Shiv Sena or fly to Chennai to meet DMK chief MK Stalin.  Visibly frustrated KCR had no other option but to follow the advice of Prashant Kishor to announce the formation of a new national party and finalize its name too. Though he made some noises in the media of appointing state committees and also picking up in-charges, that proposal too seems to have been put on the back-burner as his new ‘guide philosopher” Prashant Kishor has gone on mute.
Added to that, the state coffers getting dried up, though his government jacked up excise tax to mop up resources to meet part of state government employees' salaries, is the root cause for growing frustration among KCR.  Like a ‘cat on the hot tin’, KCR’s frustration reached its peace. As he had nothing to defend, he opted for the route to go bonkers against the Centre with such ‘senseless’ statements like the ‘Modi is the weakest PM”, while his stature is growing by leaps and bounds not only within the country but globally with even superpowers like the US and Russia looking at him to lead the world.  Modi could establish his image as the emerging global leader with his ‘fine handling of two pandemics’ years by vaccinating of 85 percent of India’s 140 crore population but also helped other countries by supplying vaccines, produced indigenously. Added to that he had also provided food grains like wheat to some nations no sooner than the Russia-Ukraine war broke out.  Not to forget, Modi’s ‘monthly ration’ to BPL families across the country, which was introduced during the pandemic, is continued.
That Modi-magic continues to work is evident from his saffron party bouncing back to power in four of the five states in the recent assembly elections. 
Many political analysts feel that the reason behind KCR’s frustration reaching its peak was the party’s recent successful conduct of the party’s plenum that was followed by a massive public meeting, which undoubtedly sent shivers down his and his partymen spines. With the anti-incumbency creeping in deeper and deeper among the electorate due to the government’s failure to release timely payments of welfare schemes and government employees getting annoyed or delayed salaries, KCR seems to have caught into a situation like “the devil and deep sea’
As a result, he is running out of ammunition to fight the Opposition, especially the BJP, which is determined to seize the opportunity and conquer another southern state, after Karnataka.  As the Modi juggernaut is becoming more and more unstoppable, KCR had no other option but to provoke the saffron party-state leadership to act against KCR and his family members' alleged graft charges.  Several senior leaders, including the BJP’s national president J P Nadda, indeed raised questions like how come the budget for the massive Kaleshwaram irrigation project has shot up to Rs 1 L crore plus crore from Rs 40 L crore? 
Another Union Minister Piyush Goel rebutted the state government’s lies over the non-release of central funds.  
Added to that the Prime Minister himself taking KCR’s misrule without taking his name on how the Centre is benefitting lakhs of BPL families in the state through Centre-sponsored schemes, as well as new infrastructure projects that come up in the state like national highways or housing to the poor to name a few, though he reeled out a long list.
In that backdrop, many political analysts feel one should see KCR’s jibe against PM, as a provocative act to force the saffron party to falter to come all out on him and his family members, which he can best utilize as a ‘victim card’ to regain whatever little from fast losing ground.  ‘Defeat’ seems menacingly staring at him and his party and many more such jibes one can expect from KCR in days to come.

By MS Shanker