Mumbai: The Telangana-based Bharat Rashtra Samithi, led by chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao, dug deeper into Maharashtra by bagging at least 10-gram panchayats in two districts in the elections held on Sunday, proving a heart-warmer ahead of the Assembly elections in its home state on November 30.
As per current indications, of the 2,359 gram panchayats which went to polls, the results of around 2,000 have been declared so far in which the BRS has won 9 gram panchayats in Bhandara district and one in neighbouring Beed district.
However, these figures are likely to change as many more gram panchayat election results are yet to be declared and the final position may be known only later.
BRS’ growing popularity
This is the third time this year that the BRS of KCR, as the leader is popularly known, has created political ripples in Maharashtra after it notched a first electoral victory outside Telangana by bagging a sarpanch seat in Ambehola village of Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district in May 2023, followed by another sarpanch winning in Savkheda village of Jalgaon district in June.
In the last week of June, KCR had created a flutter in political circles when he and his entire cabinet plus top party leaders drove down in buses and cars to pray at the famous Pandharpur Temple to mark the auspicious Ashadhi Ekadashi festival.
AIMIM, BRS make in roads into Maharashtra
With the slogan of ‘Abki Baar, Kisan Sarkar’, KCR has addressed several public meetings in the state in recent months and vowed to expand the BRS in a big way in Maharashtra, with mega-plans to contest the upcoming 2024 Assembly elections and unseat all the existing alliances, the ruling or the Opposition.
The BRS has become the second major party from Telangana – after the All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) – which is making electoral inroads into the already crowded and multi-coloured political scenario of Maharashtra, sparking concerns among the established national and local home-grown parties.
The AIMIM has successfully flown its ‘Kite’ and got its candidates elected in local civic elections in certain pockets, plus the Maharashtra Assembly and also won a Lok Sabha seat. But, KCR’s ‘Car’ is unabashedly on a long drive in Maharashtra – where it fervently hopes to yank off the (current) saffron dispensation from and foist the BRS’ pink flag on the state government headquarters in Mumbai – a veritable ‘kisar sarkar’ lording out of the country’s commercial capital.
Other outstation parties like Samajwadi Party, Janata Dal-U have one legislator each, plus representation in stray civic bodies, though some more like Bahujan Samaj Party have yet to make a mark in Maharashtra.
