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BRS’s plan for national role gets a setback: Experts
The BRS chief was particularly focussing on Maharashtra, where he had expanded party network in 15 districts, covering 27 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats, with an enrolment of nearly 1.5 million members
The setback in the recently held assembly elections in Telangana has upset the ambitious plans of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) led by former chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao to foray into national politics, analysts say.
The BRS, which was confident of returning to power in Telangana for the third consecutive term, was hoping to play a big role in the national politics by contesting the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in the neighbouring states, such as Maharashtra, Karnataka and even Andhra Pradesh.
The BRS chief was particularly focussing on Maharashtra, where he had expanded the party network in 15 districts, covering 27 of the total 48 Lok Sabha constituencies, with an enrolment of nearly 1.5 million members.
Between February and August, KCR addressed six rallies – at Sangli, Nanded, Kandhar-Loha Aurangabad, Nanded town again and Solapur. He was planning to hold a series of around 30 public meetings in Maharashtra ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
A BRS leader familiar with the development said KCR had given instructions to the party leaders in Maharashtra to step up membership drive, appoint party committees in every district and expand the organisational network across the state to face the Lok Sabha elections.
He said KCR also had plans to field candidates in a few select Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka, bordering Telangana, besides Madhya Pradesh and in Delhi, where he had established BRS central headquarters. He also established the party network in Andhra Pradesh.
However, with the announcement of schedule on October 9 for the assembly elections in Telangana, KCR put off all his plans for the national campaign and began focussing on Telangana. He extensively toured the length and breadth of Telangana by addressing public rallies in nearly 80 constituencies.
“He was oblivious of the fact that there was a growing anti-incumbency across the state and was pretty confident that the BRS would return to power for a third consecutive term. By scoring a hat-trick in the home state, he was hoping to play a bigger role at the national level by next elections,” political analyst Ramakrishna Sangem said.
The debacle in Telangana has shattered all his dreams of playing a bigger role at the national level, as the BRS ended up with just 39 seats in the 119-member Telangana assembly. Within hours of the declaration of results, KCR went into a virtual shell without even making an official statement on the results.
A couple of days later, KCR had suffered a major fracture to his left hip bone at his farmhouse in Siddipet district and he had to undergo hip replacement surgery in Hyderabad. After being in hospital for more than 10 days, he got discharged.
“As per the doctors, it will take another eight weeks for the BRS chief to recover completely. Even after that, he has to take a lot of precautions because of his age, as he cannot travel from place to place as he had done before. That would mean he will be out of action for at least three months,” the party leader quoted above said.
There are indications that the Lok Sabha elections might be held in different phases starting from the last week of March to the last week of April and as had happened in 2019, Telangana might go in for polls in the first phase itself.
“In that case, the election schedule would be announced in February and there is hardly two months’ time for the BRS to gear up for the Lok Sabha polls. The primary focus would be on winning a good number of MP seats in Telangana, rather than venturing into the other states,” the BRS leader said.
At present, the BRS has 9 MP seats out of 17 from Telangana, while the Bharatiya Janata Party has four, the Congress 3 and the AIMIM one seat. The BRS has to improve its tally to at least a dozen MP seats to nurture any dream of playing a role at the national level. But it is an uphill task, as the Congress, fresh from its victory in assembly elections, and the BJP rearing to cash in on the Modi magic, will pose a tough challenge.
“With KCR being out of direct action for another 2-3 months and the other BRS leaders like his son K T Rama Rao and T Harish Rao more interested in regaining the lost hold in Telangana than entering the neighbouring states, the national plans of KCR have gone awry. In fact, he might not even nurture such thoughts at least for the next few years,” Sangem said.
Another political analyst Ramu Suravajjula said KCR had gone overboard by projecting himself as a national leader. He said the changing the name of Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) to BRS itself was the biggest political blunder in the run-up to the crucial Telangana elections.
“At a time when his detractors and intellectuals in Telangana were accusing him of leaving the spirit of Telangana to the winds, KCR announced his national ambition without proper groundwork. Many small-time leaders from various states were brought to Hyderabad to project him a Desh Ki Neta,” he said.
“Now that the BRS suffered an electoral debacle, it is better for him to focus all his energies to bounce back. As it is KCR is not seen as a reliable partner by all political parties and the humiliating defeat in assembly elections further alienated him from the rest of the opposition,” Suravajjula said.
