Are bothe in fools Paradise????

TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu and TRS president K Chandrasekhara Rao have been on cloud nine, ever since the Congress received a minor jolt in the recent byelections to a few Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituencies.

They are under the impression that the Congress party's days are numbered in the State and that a Grand Alliance of TD-TRS-CPI and CPI-M would completely dismantle the Congress in the next elections.

KCR has gone a step ahead and told his party cadres that if there is a grand alliance, the Congress would not get more than four or five Assembly seats in Telangana and would draw a blank in the Lok Sabha polls.

Political analysts say the Opposition leaders are in a fool's paradise. Though it is not very easy for the Congress to retain its earlier strength in the State, including Telangana region, it is not tough either. Chief Minister Dr Y S Rajasekhara Reddy knows how to give steer the party in the direction of victory; and he has already started implementing his strategies.

Analysts say it could also be a strategy on the part of Chief Minister to deliberately allow the Opposition leaders to become overconfident and complacent with a few victories in some areas. And as if he is acting tough, he would take action against some Congress leaders, so as to create an impression among the Opposition parties that he got panicky. At the same time, it would also give a message to the overconfident Congress leaders to go on toes and pull up their socks.

Secondly, the Chief Minister will use all his tactics to engineer splits in the rival parties as the elections are nearing so as to upset their calculations at the ground level. He is learnt to have formed a team of his close confidants, led by his bosom friend K V P Ramachandra Rao, to find out loose links in the Opposition parties, who can play spoil sport with the chances of rival candidates. If sources are to be believed, this team has been allocated huge funds to lure such characters and destroy the rival camps.

Thus, it is evident that YSR would go all out in the coming days to save his throne and the party. Does the Opposition have any such strategies?