Hyderabad: The results of the three MLC seats that went to polls in Telangana have given a boost to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which managed to win two while the ruling Congress lost all three. The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) however chose to not contest the MLC elections, which perhaps would have seen an entirely different result in a three-way competition.
Biennial elections to the Telangana Legislative Council for Medak-Nizamabad-Adilabad-Karimnagar Graduates’ and Medak-Nizamabad-Adilabad-Karimnagar Teachers’ constituencies were held on February 27. In choosing to keep away from the MLC polls in Telangana, the BRS essentially turned the contest into a Congress versus BJP fight, which in turn ended up in an embarrassing defeat for the ruling party.
BRS leaders Siasat.com spoke to said that the party will not focus much on ‘small’ elections like the just held MLC polls so it can focus on bigger issues. “There is a lot of anti-incumbency against the Congress and we did not want to ruin it by giving them a winning chance by contesting the MLC elections. The second thing is that the top leadership may have thought it was a financial strain for us as well,” said a BRS leader on condition of anonymity.
He added that there was also a possibility of BRS candidates defecting to the ruling Congress after winning the Telangana MLC elections. “Had that happened, then our entire time efforts would have been in vain. Even current TDP chief and Andhra CM Chandrababu Naidu did not focus much on local body polls. But he still won the Assembly elections and came to power,” the BRS functionary added.
In the coming months, the Gram Panchayat (GP), Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituencies (ZPTC) and Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituencies (ZPTC) polls are expected to be held in Telangana. While political parties do not directly contest for GP posts, the ZTPC and MPTC elections are on political lines. “The BRS will focus on those,” said the party leader.
“For Gram Panchayat post we will support whoever wants to contest and we will have limited focus on it. Because there are 12000 Gram Panchayats. If someone has money, then the party will support them. Since MPTC and ZPTC polls will be on party lines, those we will contest,” the BRS leader explained.
The BRS lost the 2023 December Telangana elections to the Congress, which won 64 out of 119 seats. The BJP had won eight MLA constituencies in the elections. Since then, 10 BRS MLAs also defected to the grand old party, which, however, is in soup as there is a case in the Supreme Court seeking their disqualification and for by-elections to be held.
While the BRS under ex-chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao (KCR) consolidated itself heavily and almost crushed the entire opposition during its two terms (2014-23), it found itself on shaky grounds after becoming the opposition for the first time since Telangana was formed in 2014. KCR, since his loss has also been missing from political action, with everyone wondering when he will come out of his slumber.
“Earlier in the joint Andhra Pradesh, when KCR was not in power, he had also not contested some of the elections. Another thing is that there is a lot of criticism against the Congress right now. Our focus is more on that, and we will focus more on by-elections rather than things like the MLC polls. People think that BJP will grow by winning MLC elections, but they won such posts earlier also. What happened after that?” questioned the BRS leader.
When contacted, Telangana Congress leaders accepted that the loss in the MLC elections was unexpected. “Had it been a three-way contest with the BRS we would have won those seats. The BRS and BJP joined hands on purpose to defeat us,” a Congress leader from Hyderabad told Siasat.com.
