Why KCR has started sounding desperate

All states face the problem of reordering their finances. But Telangana more than others because it has committed itself to a path from which it cannot swerve

Welfare initiatives by the K Cha­ndrasekhar Rao (KCR)-led Te­langana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) ensured his government’s re­turn to power in 2018. It was a bumper harvest. The party got almost 47 per cent of the vote, an increase of a whopping 12.6 per cent in vote share over its performance in 2014. The number of its seats went up by 25. Opp­onents, especially the Congress, gnashed their teeth and tore out their hair, but to no avail — the Congress’s vote share went up but the number of seats, the party won fell (21 to 19). The BJP could win only