Hyderabad: Barely three months after losing power in Telangana, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) is staring at a crisis, with five of its nine Lok Sabha MPs and one MLA quitting the party and joining either the Congress or the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Along with former Medak MP Kotha Prabhakar Reddy’s election to the state assembly, this leaves the BRS with only three MPs now. BRS supremo K. Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) earlier this month renominated all three — Nama Nageswara Rao, Maloth Kavitha, and Manne Srinivas Reddy — from their seats of Khammam, Mahabubabad, and Mahabubnagar respectively.
In addition to these three, KCR has so far declared candidates for 10 more Lok Sabha constituencies out of the total 17 in Telangana. Among the nominees is former IPS officer and state Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief R.S. Praveen Kumar, hitherto KCR’s detractor, who he inducted into the party Monday and announced as the party’s candidate for the Nagarkurnool seat Friday.
Most of the MPs and the lone MLA who quit the BRS will contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections as Congress and BJP candidates.
The BRS is also staring at the threat of losing several of its 38 MLAs to the Congress during or immediately after the Lok Sabha polls as the party leadership, political observers say, is yet to come to terms with the loss of power and is struggling to deal with pent-up discontent among its leaders and cadres.
Party MLC K. Kavitha, KCR’s daughter, remains lodged in a jail in Delhi after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested her Friday for her alleged role in the Delhi excise policy case. She is unlikely to contest the Lok Sabha polls this time, say party insiders.
BRS leaders’ calls for statewide protests against Kavitha’s arrest evoked only a lukewarm response.
Two days before her arrest, the BRS gave party senior Bajireddy Goverdhan its ticket from Nizamabad, from where Kavitha was elected in 2014 and defeated in 2019.
As sitting MPs leave, the prospects of the BRS in the Lok Sabha polls do not appear bright. Three opinion surveys, Network 18, ABP C-Voter, and India TV-CNX,projected only two Lok Sabha segments for the party. Released last week, the surveys predicted that the Congress and the BJP would share the spoils between them.
Out of 17 seats, Network 18 gave the BJP eight seats, the Congress six, the BRS two, and the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) one. ABP C-Voter gave the Congress 10 seats, the BJP four, BRS two, and AIMIM one. India TV-CNX predicted nine seats for the Congress, five for the BJP, two for the BRS and one for AIMIM.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP and the Congress had won four and three seats respectively, while the BRS won nine and AIMIM one.
Also read: Congress’ Telangana turnaround is the untold story of 2023 elections. Is it hawa or aandhi?
Tickets for defectors
The Congress Thursday night nominated Chevella MP Ranjith Reddy as its Chevella candidate and Khairatabad MLA Danam Nagendar as its Secunderabad candidate after the two leaders joined the party from the BRS Sunday.
Among the five candidates in its second list for Telangana was another ex-BRS leader, Sunitha Mahender Reddy, who is standing in the Malkajgiri constituency.
Sunitha is the chairperson of the Vikarabad zilla parishad and the wife of BRS MLC Patnam Mahender Reddy. Last month, she joined the Congress in the presence of her husband, a former minister in the BRS government, who has also been moving in Congress circles and even attending the party’s meetings.
The Congress is yet to declare candidates for eight seats in Telangana.
Earlier this month, the BJP also rewarded two BRS turncoats who had joined it only a few days before. The party nominated MP Bheemarao Basawanthrao Patil from his sitting constituency, Zaheerabad, and Pothuganti Bharat Prasad from Nagarkurnool. The latter is the son of the sitting MP from Nagarkurnool, Pothuganti Ramulu, who defected to the BJP from the BRS last month.
The BJP also declared former BRS MPs Godam Nagesh and Sitaram Naik and former BRS MLA Shanampuri Saidireddy as its candidates from Adilabad, Mahabubabad, and Nalgonda respectively. The announcement came three days after the three, along with other BRS leaders, joined the BJP on 10 March.
Stream of defections
The latest desertions, those of MPs Ranjith and Pasunuri and MLA Danam, occurred when KCR was in Hyderabad and working president K.T. Rama Rao was camping in Delhi as part of deliberations to get bail for Kavitha.
Another prominent BRS leader, KCR’s nephew, former minister, and troubleshooter T. Harish Rao, was also not around to engage in negotiations with those leaving the party.
The two MPs’ desertions follow those of several former legislators, municipal and rural body chiefs, and other representatives who have joined the Congress over the past few weeks.
Another MP, Venkatesh Netha, left the BRS to rejoin the Congress in February. Warangal MLA Pasunuri Dayakar switched to the Congress from the BRS last weekend. Hyderabad ex-mayor Bonthu Rammohan and former deputy mayor Baba Fasiuddin have also joined the Congress.
Ten BRS MLAs have met CM Revanth Reddy over the past three months amid a buzz that they would eventually join the Congress.
On Sunday, Revanth, also the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee chief, announced that the party gates are open for leaders of other parties, including MLAs.
“No one will be left in the BRS now, except KCR family members,” Revanth said at a press meet Sunday to mark 100 days of the Congress-led government in the state.
Two hours later, Ranjith and Danam joined the Congress in the presence of Revanth and All India Congress Committee Telangana in-charge Deepa Dasmunshi.
BRS leaders allege that Revanth has become paranoid over “imagined threats” to his government and is thus encouraging defections.
In public speeches, Revanth has been referring to the “BRS’s warnings, predictions” that his Congress government would fall soon.
BRS MLA Sanjay Kalvakuntla said, “It is the power-hungry politicians and those with business interests who are leaving us. We are regaining our mass support as Telangana people are realising the mistake of bringing the Congress to power.”
“Revanth saying his party gates are open for defectors shows his insecurity. Let’s see which way it will be used,” he added.
Also read: How Congress ended KCR’s rule in Telangana. ‘Congress became BJP, and BJP became Congress’
‘BRS engineered 39 defections’
A delegation of BRS leaders met with Telangana Legislative Assembly Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar Monday, urging the disqualification of Danam under the anti-defection law. Congress leaders questioned the move, saying that the BRS itself had engineered the defections of 39 opposition MLAs during its rule.
Adi Srinivas, Congress MLA and government whip in the assembly, said, “Between 2014 and 2018, KCR took in 23 MLAs belonging to the TDP (Telugu Desam Party), the Congress, the YSR Congress Party, the BSP, and the Communist Party of India (CPI). Even after winning 88 MLA seats in the 2018 elections, the BRS chief brazenly caused 16 defections — 12 from the Congress, two from the TDP, and two Independents — in a nefarious bid to wipe out the Opposition. Look at the twist of fate, God’s will: The MLA defections KCR plotted totalled 39, and that is the figure the voters confined BRS to in the 2023 polls.”
KCR, at the time, also included Talasani Srinivas Yadav from the TDP and Sabitha Indra Reddy from the Congress in his cabinet even as they continued as MLAs elected on other parties’ tickets, Congress leaders said
“BRS leaders and legislators are leaving KCR as they have lost faith in him,” Adi said.
The party — which KCR renamed BRS from ‘Telangana Rashtra Samithi’ as he eyed expansion beyond the state— is witnessing desertions outside Telangana too.
BRS Maharashtra president Manik Kadam, who was instrumental in the party’s expansion there, has joined the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). The party’s Andhra Pradesh unit has also become dysfunctional.
According to political analysts, KCR’s long spells of absence from the public eye, alleged overconfidence and inability to forge alliances are costing him dearly.
“True, the present situation rings danger bells for the party. The BRS’s revival depends on how well KCR regains his command and composure and confidently involves himself in leading the party activities publicly,” said Bhandaru Srinivasa Rao, a Hyderabad-based political observer. “The Lok Sabha polls will be an acid test.”
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