Telangana: Missing in action, KCR to continue political slumber

KCR was the chief minister of Telangana from 2014 after the state was formed until he lost in 2023.

Hyderabad: If you’re one of those people who have been wondering Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) supremo will be back in action, then it will perhaps be a while between you see that happen. The ex-Telangana chief minister who has more or less been missing from action in the political arena is likely to continue his mysterious silence for a while, said BRS sources.

After the BRS lost the Telangana state elections in 2023 to the Congress, KCR announced a Bus Yatra once in 2024, after which he once again went into his political slumber. His son and BRS working president KT Rama Rao and Siddipet MLA (KCR’s nephew) Harish Rao have so far been leading the party which is currently the main opposition in the state. KCR has barely made a public appearance otherwise.

A BRS leader, who did not want to be quoted, said that KCR is going to remain “silent” for longer to make the pubic “understand” the difference between having a BRS government from the current incumbent Congress. “Everywhere farmers are unhappy, and this is showing in terms of how they have been holding protests. The state is also unable to manage its finances. He wants to expose the lack of good governance,” he added.

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KCR was the chief minister of Telangana from 2014 after the state was formed until he lost in 2023. The BRS managed to get 39 seats, while the Congress secured 64, just crossing the required 60. Since then 10 BRS MLAs have also defected to the ruling party.

“There is no need for KCR to come into public right now. When the time ie right he will become active,” the BRS leader told Siasat.com. He hinted that the party’s strategy could be to leverage the statehood formation and issues that were its base once again when KCR becomes active. During 2018 Telangana polls, KCR used the ‘outsider’ or ‘settler’ issues with regard to people of Andhra origin living in Hyderabad as a strategy, which worked and the BRS won.

The 2023 Telangana election loss was also a major setback for KCR, as the BRS was confident of winning a third term. Battling anti-incumbency, the ex-chief minister was banking on schemes like Rythu Bandhu (subsidy income for land holding farmers) and Dalit Bandhu (Rs 10 lakh for households). However, the BRS still lost.

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The BJP, who won eight seats and got 20% of the vote share also impacted the results, by eating into votes of both the BRS and Congress. The saffron party had got just 7% vote share in the 2018 Telangana elections, winning just one seat then. It is to be seen if the Congress under chief minister Revanth Reddy also manages to draw KCR out with his constant attacks on the latter’s family over allegations of corruption.

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