Holding on to Telangana | A crisis before KCR

The going is getting tough for Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) supremo and Telangana chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao. KCR, as he is popularly known, finds himself backed into a corner with no takers for his national foray, barring a few farmer leaders in neighbouring Maharashtra. Back home, he has to combat the growing sentiment of anti-incumbency as he seeks a third consecutive term in the Telangana assembly election later this year.For nearly two years now, KCR has tried hard to sell his party—rechristened from the Telangana Rashtra Samithi just last year—as an alternative to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress in the hope of forming and leading a grand alliance in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. But just a few, if any, are impressed with his pitch and the BRS chief remains isolated even as the Congress and the BJP level a slew of allegations of corruption and tardy governance against his cabinet colleagues and other party leaders in Telangana.Several BRS legislators face accusations of taking ‘cuts’ from beneficiaries of welfare programmes, including the flagship Dalit Bandhu and 2BHK housing schemes, so much so that it prompted KCR to warn them to be ready to face the sack, during the party plenary on April 27. Not willing to let the Opposition rake up the issue, the KCR government ensured that the newly appointed state BJP chief G. Kishan Reddy could not lead a delegation to an incomplete 2BHK apartments site on the outskirts of state capital Hyderabad on July 20. Reddy, who had just landed from Delhi, was stopped by the police on an arterial road near the airport, where he ended up sitting on a dharna to protest his “detention”.“KCR is sitting in Pragati Bhavan (his official residence and principal workplace) and muzzling the Opposition voice,” Reddy said on assuming charge as the Telangana BJP president the following day, and went on to issue a warning. “We will usher in a ‘bulldozer’ government against corruption.” After a setback in the assembly election in neighbouring Karnataka, the BJP has realised that it needs to get aggressive in exposing KCR’s failures if it wants to pose any serious challenge to him. If the BJP is upping the ante, even the Congress has been infused with fresh energy after its win in Karnataka. The rifts within the BRS don’t help the party’s cause either. For KCR, choosing the right candidates is also a major challenge. He is determined to field only those who can fund and run their own campaign. The BRS chief himself is toying with the idea of switching to the Peddapalli constituency, uncertain of notching a landslide victory in Gajwel, which he won by nearly 60,000 votes in 2018.In at least 25 of the 119 assembly segments, BRS candidates had lost despite spending large sums on their campaigns in 2018. They are now insisting that the party give them another shot, but are facing competition from the Congress defectors who had beaten them in 2018 before switching to the BRS. Though KCR had a comfortable majority, winning 88 of the 119 seats in the previous election, he had welcomed 12 of the 18 MLAs elected on a Congress ticket to further weaken his principal rival. Internal surveys suggest the 12 Congress defectors have “unsatisfactory” approval ratings. Rewarding them while denying tickets to party loyalists will only widen the schisms.In another 15 segments or so, BRS legislators are facing a challenge from second-rung and next-generation leaders. Jagtial zilla parishad chairperson Dava Vasantha, for instance, is lobbying for the BRS ticket from the Jagtial seat held by party MLA M. Sanjay Kumar. The Kothagudem zilla parishad chairperson Koram Kanakaiah has already defected and is seeking a Congress ticket from the Yellandu seat. There is growing concern about these turf wars spreading to other constituencies. KCR has thus tasked both his children—son and cabinet minister K.T. Rama Rao, and daughter K. Kavitha—with curbing groupism through dialogue. The BRS is especially wary of the Congress having the last laugh if the ruling party rebels decide to join it. “The Congress is our main rival,” admits B. Vinod Kumar, a former BRS parliamentarian who is now the vice-chairman of the Telangana Planning Board. As far as the BJP is concerned, it’s all “hype”, he says, adding that the saffron party “does not have good, visible candidates in more than 10 seats”. A few BRS ticket hopefuls also fear losing out to the Communist Party of India (CPI) and CPI (Marxist) candidates if KCR reaches a seat-sharing arrangement with the Left. The Communists are eyeing nearly 10 constituencies in the Khammam, Karimnagar and Nalgonda regions. For now, though, KCR has offered the CPI(M) just one seat. He has also proposed to provide the Communists two seats in the legislative council in lieu of their support.In another eight constituencies, the BRS will be locked, like the last time, in a ‘friendly match’ with Asaduddin Owaisi’s All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM). In effect, KCR faces uncertainty in more than half of the 119 constituencies. To counter this, he plans to poach Congress heavyweights, having started this pursuit with Bhongir district Congress chief K. Anil Kumar Reddy, who joined the BRS on July 24.Even as he grapples with multiple dilemmas in allotting party tickets, KCR hopes to neutralise anti-incumbency by offering fresh sops, which his acolytes describe as the BRS supremo’s ‘Brahmastra’. These include the one-time Rs 1 lakh grant to poor families among the Other Backward Classes (OBCs), Muslims and Christians. Then, there are plans to raise the insurance cover under the Aarogyasri health scheme from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 5 lakh and introduce digital cards valid for 10 years. The Aasara pension for senior citizens and widows is also to be enhanced to Rs 3,016 from Rs 2,016. All these and more are to be announced along with the party manifesto that is to be unveiled with the first list of contestants later in August.But not all are impressed. “KCR’s propensity to distort facts enables him to announce new schemes though he fails to implement the existing ones,” says former Congress irrigation minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah. He has reason to make such allegations. The BRS government spends about Rs 90,000 crore a year on various welfare schemes. But the state’s outstanding liabilities, primarily through borrowings, have almost doubled in the past five years, forcing it to put the payouts on hold. The Dalit Bandhu scheme, for instance, which was launched in 2021 and provided Rs 10 lakh each for starting a business to 1,100 Scheduled Caste families in the Huzurabad assembly segment, was to be extended to 130,000 beneficiaries across the state. Four months later they are still waiting for the promised benefits.“Anti-incumbency poses a big challenge to the BRS,” says Harathi Vageeshan, who teaches political science at the NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad. “There is growing disenchantment among various groups, like the jobless youth and government employees, which KCR is taking lightly. It could prove detrimental to his party.” He also points to governance-related issues, like the poor implementation of Dharani, the electronic revenue records portal, and mismanagement in the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation, which the Opposition could highlight to corner the KCR regime in the run-up to the assembly election. “The BRS thinks it can counter all this and scrape through by banking on its welfare schemes. But this trust seems to be misplaced,” says Vageeshan.In an attempt to bolster its strength, the BRS is to hold meetings with its OBC leaders to discuss ways to avoid a split in their vote bank. The OBCs together account for a little over 50 per cent of the state’s population. “The polls are steadily becoming a bipolar contest between the BRS and the Congress. The moot question is whether with the Congress promising a caste census and [proportional] representation to them, will the OBCs overlook the BRS’s welfare plank?” asks E. Venkatesu of the University of Hyderabad’s political science department. For the BRS to overcome this challenge, he says, it will have to expand its social profile in terms of the distribution of tickets. Time, it seems, is running out for KCR.

TRENDING TOPICS

Holding on to Telangana | A crisis before KCR

His dream of leading the Opposition alliance in 2024 fast fading, the BRS chief finds himself waging a lonely battle. Can he retain Telangana at least?

Big relief for Rahul Gandhi, Supreme Court stays his conviction in defamation case

Welcome Supreme Court order but legal battle to continue, says Purnesh Modi

FIR against ex-Karnataka Home Minister for 'black & burnt' remark for Kharge

Bulldozer action in Haryana on 'illegal occupied' shanties after 6 killed in riots

6 held over attacking cops with swords during Muharram procession in Delhi

‘Had it been day less…’: Supreme Court questions Rahul Gandhi’s 2-year sentence

Gyanvapi mosque complex survey to continue, Supreme Court says no excavation

Rahul Gandhi back as MP, can contest polls as Supreme Court pauses conviction

Congress's Jagdish Tytler gets pre-arrest bail in 1984 anti-Sikh riots case

Bulldozer action near Haryana’s Nuh after clashes, ‘illegal’ shanties razed

PUBLICATIONS

TELEVISION

EVENTS

RADIO

GAMING

USEFUL LINKS

PRINTING

WELFARE

DISTRIBUTION

SYNDICATIONS

WEBSITES

EDUCATION