Despite its own national ambitions, the K Chandrashekar Rao or KCR-led party is ready for a more “accommodating stance” which, sources said, has come about due to the pressure that the BJP and the Union government have put on regional parties.
“The way Central agencies have been unleashed on Opposition leaders and any voice of dissent… very soon, we will become Pakistan. There, when Imran Khan was in power, Opposition leaders had to flee the country. When they came to power, Khan is fighting for his life… This a dire situation and everyone has to come together. It is not 2019 anymore. We have to bury differences and make defeating the BJP a priority to save the nation,” a senior party leader said.
KCR’s daughter and former MP K Kavitha is facing an Enforcement Directorate (ED) probe in connection with the Delhi liquor policy case.
Ever since the party changed its name to the BRS – it was known as the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) in its earlier avatar – it has been holding rallies and political programmes in various states (the latest in Maharashtra), but also engaged in a bitter tussle with the Congress on its home turf of Telangana.
Sources in the BRS said that the party wants the Congress to realise its depleted national strength and negotiate with regional parties for a pre-poll alliance.
“All we are saying is that the Congress must get its fair share, where it is strong. But where other regional parties are strong, the Congress must make way. This is the only way an Opposition alliance will work and eventually be effective,” a party leader close to KCR said.
The leader added that the party was not comfortable either with a Narendra Modi versus Rahul Gandhi narrative for 2024. “The Opposition is sure to lose on that binary. It was tested in 2019. There are people within the Opposition, such as (Bihar CM) Nitish Kumar and (West Bengal CM) Mamata Banerjee, who have proven track record of administration. What has Rahul Gandhi achieved? He is not even the official leader of his party. Nor does he have the courage to announce himself as a PM candidate.”
Another leader pointed out the 2020 Bihar Assembly elections to illustrate that Opposition unity must be shaped keeping regional equations in mind. At the time, he said, the Congress wrested a significant number of seats from the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and “ended up hurting it when it failed to convert a majority of its share”.
Sources said that the BRS is keen on “meaningful” alliances and will work to bring the Opposition together. A lot of things would be finalised during discussions between various parties over the next few months, sources said.
After a recent visit to Delhi, where Nitish met leaders of various parties, including the Congress, the Bihar CM had said he would be talking to other regional parties, including the BRS, to forge an Opposition alliance.
While stressing that their priority was “the Assembly polls” later this year, the leader close to KCR said coming elections across Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Karnataka would be watched for any change in Congress fortunes. “Negotiations will be informed by these results.”
In public, the Congress and BRS remain bitter enemies. In October last year, Rahul mocked the TRS name change to BRS, and said KCR was free to call his party “international” if he liked. The BRS shot back, with KCR’s son and state minister K Taraka Rama Rao or KTR saying the “wannabe PM” must first win Amethi (the family seat from where Rahul lost to Smriti Irani in 2019).
BRS leaders say another stumbling block is differences between parties over the key national issues to take up in the 2024 polls. While Rahul seems intent on his Adani attack, the BRS says it is only one among the many points it wishes to highlight.
“We have to expose the BJP’s lies. We have to inform the public of the truth. We have to tell people how the BJP has actually failed on all the promises it has made. We have to expose whose national security has been compromised on the China border,” the leader said.
The party, sources said, is aware of the challenge it is facing in shaping narratives, given the BJP’s organisational strength and hold over social media – and trying to change that.
“We have now learnt how the BJP works. Now we are also investing a lot of resources in managing social media. We have set up IT cells in each constituency which are managed by MLAs or local leaders. Their primary job will be countering the BJP propaganda and telling people the truth,” the leader said.
Incidentally, until a few years ago, the KCR was among the handful of regional parties which were considered neutral towards the BJP regime. The KRS largely supported the Bills and proposals brought by the government in Parliament, and the Centre provided the assistance sought by the Telangana government. However, with the BJP making strides in Telangana, there have been frequent verbal clashes between the two sides. The Telangana police recently arrested state BJP chief B Sanjay Kumar in connection with Class 10 paper leaks.
As part of building a national platform, the BRS has been trying to take a stand on issues beyond the state. Party MLC K Kavitha, for example, pushed for the women’s reservation Bill this March at the time of her ED questioning in the excise case. Inaugurating a 125 ft statue of Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar in Hyderabad recently, KCR said: “I plead with confidence that in the next 2024 elections we are going to win and rule the country.”
Deeptiman Tiwary… read more