Lok Sabha Polls 2024: Is KCR-led BRS facing existential threat in Telangana?

BRS/TRS founder K. Chandrasekhar Rao.

KT Rama Rao, son of BRS/TRS founder K Chandrasekhar Rao or KCR as he is widely known, did a plainspeak on the “expiry date” for his party in the run up to the state elections in his home state of Telangana.

In a marathon TV interview on November 7, exactly a month before the elections in 2023 that made KCR miss the hat-trick, Rama Rao or KTR, also the party’s working president, said “We are all born with an expiry date. If anyone aspires to be in power forever he is nothing but ignorant. Everybody in power is bound to go home one day or the other and we are also ready (to follow suit)”. 

Exodus on The Cards

The KTR’s so-called expiry date brings to the fore, post the poll outcome, the very existence of the BRS.

Chandrasekhar Rao like a Bahubali, a protagonist in the Rajamouli’s blockbuster movie, not only successfully stalled the forays of the BJP and the Congress with their nationalist agendas into his home turf for a decade but also managed to almost finish off the TDP, led by Chandrababu Naidu, and the Congress with his cannibalistic politics.

Incidentally, the story now is repeating for KCR after he lost to the Congress in the state elections. His citadel developed fault lines with several of its lawmakers seeking greener pastures in either Congress or the BJP ahead of the national elections scheduled for May 13.

KCR’s Stock Jittery Over Kavitha’s Arrest

The arrest of KCR’s daughter, K Kavitha, by the Enforcement Directorate in a liquor scam, has even made it a daunting task for KCR to keep his flock together.

At least five of nine elected Lok Sabha members deserted the BRS and joined the BJP and the Congress and sought tickets from those parties. One BRS MLA Danam Nagender officially joined the Congress even as seven other MLAs from the KCR party met with Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy recently. Scared BRS leaders petitioned Speaker Geddam Prasad Kumar seeking disqualification of the defected MLA.

Has BRS Neared Expiry Date?

It’s the regional sentiment that has kept KCR’s party alive all these years. After all, KCR won the last two elections in succession only on the strength of this sentiment. The TRS has lost its relevance as a regional party with its roots deep in KCR’s home state after he rebranded his party as a national party before the state elections.

So, KCR’s sentiment failed to work in the last election, making way for the dominance of national politics with the Congress and the BJP as main players. Telangana, which was part of Andhra Pradesh till the state bifurcation, was under the Congress for a decade.

It’s observed that the failure of KCR’s regional party to address sub-regional aspirations is also one of the reasons for the sentiment to die down. KCR’s 10-year regime came under sharp criticism for neglecting south Telangana in terms of delivering its due share in power and over-all development that dented his image as a sole champion of the pan-Telangana region.

KCR’s Tactical Blunder

KCR’s folly of underplaying the threat of BJP has apparently forced him to cede space to the saffron party. BRS under the leadership of KCR saw the Congress as its main rival and sought to finish it off by encouraging massive defections from the grand old party while turning a blind eye to the “saffron threat”. The Congress led by A Revanth Reddy, presently the chief minister of Telangana, made huge gains out of anti-incumbency factor against the BRS rule by projecting KCR as Modi’s B-team in the elections.

Post elections the BJP sought to reverse public perception vis-à-vis itself and the BRS by ensuring Kavitha’s arrest in a bid to get into BRS’s space.

LS Polls, a Do-Or-Die For KCR

The BRS, devoid of a regional character, is expected to decline further in the Parliament elections bound to be held in the BJP-Congress binary of national politics. In the past, KCR deftly avoided simultaneous polls by going for early polls and managed to win a second term in the 2018 assembly elections. But in the 2019 Parliament elections subsequently held in a short span of three months, he failed to insulate his party from the surge of saffron wave that helped BJP secure four Lok Sabha seats with 20 percent vote share. If this were to repeat in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, KCR’s party is likely to face existential threat, turning the country’s youngest state a home to bi-polar national politics.

Gali Nagaraja is a senior journalist, formerly associated with The Hindu, The Times of India, and Hindustan Times for over three decades. Views are personal, and do not represent the stance of this publication.