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A year after launch, uncertainty looms BRS’s Maharashtra unit
The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS)’s Maharashtra unit leaders have approached the party’s top leadership citing lack of communication about the future course of action and strategy for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections
Hyderabad: The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS)’s Maharashtra unit leaders have approached the party’s top leadership citing lack of communication about the future course of action and strategy for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, a year after the BRS expanded its footprints in the neighbouring state by establishing a vast network of leaders and cadre.
BRS president and former chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao had transformed his regional party – Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) — into BRS in October 2022 with a lofty announcement of his national political mission to bring about qualitative change in the national politics and governance. He declared that he would expand his party network across the country, starting with Maharashtra and then to Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and even in Delhi.
On February 5, 2023, KCR addressed his first public rally in Maharashtra at Bhokar in Nanded city, followed by events in Kandhar-Loha, Aurangabad, Nanded, Sholapur, Pandharpur and Sangli.
“We were all carried away by the popularity of KCR in Telangana and several top leaders, including as many as eleven ex-MLAs and an ex-MP, joined the party. Many of them are from Nationalist Congress Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party and some of them lost the last elections with a slender margin of 1,000 to 3,000 votes and have the potential to win the elections again, whenever they are held,” steering committee member and BRS state Kisan Morcha president Manik Kadam said.
However, he added, since the party’s defeat in the Telangana assembly elections, the top leadership has gone silent, triggering uncertainty and confusion in the state unit.
On Tuesday, several leaders of the BRS steering committee and divisional coordinators of the party’s Maharashtra unit held a meeting at Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar (Aurangabad) to discuss their future course of action, in the event of lack of a proper direction from KCR.
“We wrote a letter to the BRS president to give us clarity as to what he wants to do with the party in Maharashtra. We gave them a week’s time to respond, so that we can decide on our own course of action,” Kadam said.
He added that, apart from the letter, the Maharashtra unit of BRS also sent a WhatsApp message to KCR, which said that the party leaders in the state were expecting him to clarify whether the BRS is willing to contest the Lok Sabha elections or not.
“We want a stand from the party so that we can handle our karyakartas (activists) in today’s situation,” the message said.
Kadam said if the BRS really wanted to contest the elections in Maharashtra, the state unit wanted to know the strategy. “If the party doesn’t want to contest the Lok Sabha elections, we want a message from KCR on his strategy for Vidhan Sabha elections, so that we can hold our horses and focus on Vidhan Sabha elections only,” he said.
The BRS leaders resolved that they should have an immediate meeting with KCR to discuss the party’s plan of action. “But we haven’t got any reply either to the WhatsApp message or the letter,” Kadam said.
“We were all carried away by the popularity of KCR in Telangana and several top leaders including as many as eleven ex-MLAs and an ex-MP joined the party. Many of them are from Nationalist Congress Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party and some of them lost the last elections with a slender margin of 1,000 to 3,000 votes and have the potential to win the elections again, whenever they are held,” Kadam said.
Some of the top leaders who joined the BRS include Bhagirath Bhalke, who unsuccessfully contested on NCP ticket from Pandharpur in 2021 polls, another top NCP leader Yashpal Bhinge, former BJP MLA Charan Waghmare, NCP Chandrapur district unit president Priyadarshan Ajay Ingle, NCP minority cell secretary Arif Azmi and NCP Thane district vice president Maqsood Khan.
The BRS established its network at the grassroots level in 15 districts, covering 27 of the total 48 Lok Sabha constituencies in Maharashtra. “Believe it or not, the BRS has a total membership of 2.5 million activists, the highest for any political party in Maharashtra. Now, they are all in a state of confusion as to what they should do. They have lost faith in the BRS,” Kadam said.
He claimed that if the BRS contests the Lok Sabha elections, it can win at least three MP seats. “In the Vidhan Sabha elections, the party has the potential to win 13 MLAs. Unfortunately, the BRS leadership has completely dumped us,” he regretted.
In September, the BRS announced that KCR would hold a series of 30 public meetings in Maharashtra, covering the majority of the districts, intensify the membership drive, appoint party committees in every district and expand the organisational network across the state to face the Lok Sabha elections.
“But nothing of that sort has happened. Last time we spoke to KCR was during the Telangana assembly elections in November. After that, he has gone incommunicado,” he said.
Kadam also claimed that offices purchased by the BRS in Nagpur and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar were shut. In some other places, the party offices taken on lease were also shut due to non-payment of rents. “The party has not bothered to pay rents and other recurring expenses like electricity bills,” he said.
Even in Andhra Pradesh, the BRS has virtually wound up its shop. Senior leader and retired IAS officer Thota Chandrasekhar, who was heading the BRS unit in Andhra, is planning to join Jana Sena Party headed by actor Pawan Kalyan, while another senior BRS leader and former minister Ravela Kishore Babu joined the YSR Congress party.
Former BRS lawmaker from Armoor in Nizamabad district A Jeevan Reddy, who played a major role in expanding the party network in Maharashtra and bringing several leaders into the party, did not respond to the calls to react on the latest development.
BRS spokesman Dasoju Sravan, however, said it was for KCR to take a decision on the party activities in Maharashtra. “He will take a call at an appropriate time on what the party should do in Maharashtra,” Sravan said.
