Hyderabad: While the ruling Congress is gearing up for the upcoming Telangana local body elections, the main opposition Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) might not put all of its effort to avoid wasting resources. BRS leaders said that while the party will support whoever is contesting the elections, it will however not put in all of its resources in anticipation of defections to the ruling party.
It may be recalled that the BRS also recently skipped the MLC elections in Telangana, leaving it to become a contest between the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which managed win two out of three seats (via candidates it supported). It was an embarrassment for the ruling party, which is now looking to solidify its position in the state via the upcoming local body elections and the Jubilee Hills by-election as well.
“We will certainly contest the elections and fight it out. However, the party will not put in money as usual and will instead support candidates who are contesting who can pool in their own resources. Since we are not in power there may be defections to the Congress which will again not look good for us,” said a BRS functionary from Hyderabad who did not want to be quoted.
However, the BRS currently is facing many issues even as it tries to be a strong opposition party. With party chief KCR and ex-ministers Harish Rao and KT Rama Rao currently facing investigations for alleged scams, the party leadership is in a bit of disarray.
It may be recalled that when the BRS was in power between 2014-23, party president and ex-chief minister K Chandarasekhar Rao (KCR) had engineered defections both the times when he was in power. In fact even though KCR won 88 out of 119 seats in the 2018 Telangana state elections, he managed to wipe out the opposition Congress by getting 12 out of its 19 MLAs to shift to the BRS.
In the 2019 Telangana local body elections BRS-backed candidates swept the polls and many were elected unanimously. Similarly in the 2020 urban municipality elections as well KCR managed to win about 100 plus of the nearly 140 municipalities and corporations that went to polls in January 2020. The BRS about 60% of the wards, leaving both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) then far behind.
Congress Telangana in-charge Meenakshi Natrajan will begin her Padayatra in six Assembly constituencies as part of the party’s canvassing for the local body elections and also for the upcoming Jubilee Hills by-election. A Congress functionary said that this time the BJP also will be a strong contender as the saffron party has grown in some parts of the state.
In the 2020 local body polls the BJP was more or less non-existent. However, it managed to win eight Assembly seats with 20% of the vote share in the 2023 Telangana Assembly elections and eight Lok Sabha seats out of 17 during the 2024 Parliament polls with nearly half the vote share.
