Hyderabad: Telangana’s former chief minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR), in his second public appearance since he lost power to the Congress in December, likened Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leaders defecting to the Congress ahead of the general election to “mongrels and foxes”.
While campaigning in drought-prone areas in the Suryapet-Nalgonda-Jangaon districts east of Hyderabad Sunday, the BRS chief said, “You (Congress/CM Revanth Reddy) can rejoice by hauling in one or two, some mongrels and foxes. Those are cheap tactics, cheap political stunts. Compared to the common man’s pains, problems, and issues like parched crops, it is not a big issue (for me).”
Several sitting MPs, two MLAs, one MLC, and scores of former legislators, municipal or panchayat representatives, district-level and other second-rung leaders have deserted KCR’s BRS over the past few weeks, while more have made a beeline. Most have joined the ruling Congress, while a few went to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Aided with a stick to support his steps in parched fields, KCR interacted with farmers affected by drought. Later, he accused the “callous Congress government of leaving the ‘ryots’ (farmers) to their fate as their crops wilt due to the water shortage conditions”.
The ex-CM also said that since Revanth Reddy took over from him, “200 Telangana farmers lost their lives, either committing suicides or electrocuted due to erratic power supply”.
KCR plans to visit more districts, with one such tour slated later this week in central Telangana. Telangana will poll on 13 May.
KCR’s two confidants jump the ship
Just a few days after stepping down from the CM chair, KCR had slipped in his bathroom, and underwent hip replacement surgery later in December.
KCR’s outing while still recuperating and taking up the farmers’ cause ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, comes when, political analysts pointed out, BRS prospects like the crops KCR examined are fast drying up in the state he ruled for two consecutive terms.
In a jolt to KCR, the latest defectors are two seniors and close confidants — BRS secretary general and veteran politician K. Keshava Rao (KK), and former deputy CM and Station Ghanpur MLA Kadiyam Srihari.
As KCR was stepping out of his house for the farm tour, which included Jangaon, the district encompassing Station Ghanpur, Kadiyam deserted the party Sunday morning.
Kadiyam joined the Congress with his daughter and BRS’s Warangal nominee Kavya in the presence of CM Revanth Reddy and AICC Telangana in-charge Deepa Dasmunshi. Congress announced Kavya as the Congress candidate from Warangal by Monday evening.
Keshava Rao, the 85-year-old sitting Rajya Sabha MP and KCR’s advisor, especially on national matters and politics, met Revanth Reddy Friday. He later went public with his intention to rejoin the Congress.
A day later, KK’s daughter and Hyderabad mayor Gadwal Vijayalaxmi joined the Congress in the presence of Revanth and Dasmunshi.
“KCR was unhappy and asked me to reconsider my decision. But I stated my resolve to rejoin the Congress party, which I had been associated with for over five decades before,” Keshava Rao told ThePrint.
“I am not bothered about formal joining. I am a Congress-man now,” said KK, who had formerly been a Congress minister, APCC chief, and Congress in-charge of West Bengal, Assam, and other states.
In May 2013, KK had quit the Congress to join the BRS, then Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS).
While some leaders are leaving the BRS silently or thanking KCR for opportunities and positions over the last 10 years, some have mentioned disillusionment with the party as reason for their exit.
In a letter to KCR last week, Kavya, while withdrawing her BRS candidature, listed corruption, land-grabbing and phone-tapping allegations, and the alleged involvement of the BRS leadership in the Delhi liquor scam as having tarnished the party image.
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‘KCR trying to keep his party afloat’
Upping his game, Revanth last month said the Telangana Congress “gates are now wide open for leaders of other parties, including MLAs”.
On Sunday, KCR asserted that with 39 MLAs, the BRS is the main opposition party. “We are not routed in the state; we will fight for people’s causes,” he said, demanding the Revanth government offer Rs 25,000 per acre compensation to affected farmers.
However, with two defections and the demise of MLA Lasya Nanditha in a car crash, the BRS strength in the assembly is now 36.
Several BRS legislators have either met Revanth or reportedly been in touch with Congress leaders with apparent plans to join the party sooner or later.
With three opinion polls last month predicting the BRS winning only two of the 17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana, analysts said KCR now has the immediate task of saving the BRS vote bank from disastrous levels of depletion.
“The BRS chief who did not step out of the palatial Pragathi Bhavan during the devastating Hyderabad floods or major mishaps resulting in big loss of lives in his tenure and who, as an opposition leader, has not attended the assembly till now, is touring districts, meeting the public. KCR’s effort is apparently to show his relevance and to keep his party afloat in the face of a mass exodus,” Hyderabad-based political commentator Vasireddy Srinivas told ThePrint.
In his first public appearance after losing power, at a rally in Nalgonda district on 13 February, KCR had accused the Revanth Reddy government of handing over the management of irrigation projects to the Centre.
Telangana Irrigation and Civil Supplies Minister Uttam Kumar Reddy refuted KCR’s charges of inept handling of irrigation and power sectors, claiming “there is no power shortage or power cuts in the whole of Telangana as being falsely alleged by KCR.”
The minister also said the BRS has disintegrated and is on the verge of extinction. “The BRS attempted to become a national party, but is now facing complete annihilation after a single electoral defeat. The BRS would fail to secure a single seat in the Lok Sabha election, leaving only KCR and his family members within the party,” he told reporters Monday.
Uttam Kumar Reddy also alleged that KCR “who as chief minister enjoyed a lavish lifestyle either in the palatial Pragati Bhavan or his farmhouse” is now visiting farms, meeting farmers, and making false accusations about the Congress government for votes.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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