Interestingly, KCR did not refer to Chief Minister Revanth Reddy even once in his nearly 45-minute-long address, despite the latter invoking KCR almost daily to criticise the BRS and its previous administration.
Published Apr 28, 2025 | 5:43 PM ⚊ Updated Apr 28, 2025 | 5:43 PM
KCR's message was clear: he has shown his ability to deliver, while the Congress has only shown incompetence.
Synopsis: The BRS’s silver jubilee celebrations on Sunday infused fresh enthusiasm into a party cadre demoralised after successive shock defeats in the previous Assembly and Lok Sabha polls. Party supremo and former Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao delivered a calm, strategic address that signalled the party’s revival. Overall, it was a hugely positive event for a party that had lately been almost written off in Telangana politics. However, whether this momentum can sustain itself until the next elections remains to be seen.
It was akin to a depleting river finding a fresh lease of life.
Down and out since the defeat in the December 2023 Assembly elections and the morale-shattering performance in the Lok Sabha polls months later, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) demonstrated on Sunday, 27 April, that it remains a force to be reckoned with.
Even critics accept that the gathering at Elkathurthy, held to mark 25 years since the party’s founding, was massive.
While the ruling Congress estimated the crowd at three to four lakh, the BRS itself claimed double that figure. Several lakhs more watched the proceedings online across multiple platforms.
Numbers aside, a cold analysis suggests a few distinct positives for the BRS.
Politics being, at its core, a psychological contest, the event provided a dispirited cadre with renewed purpose, despite the next elections being three years away.
The Congress and the BJP may now find it harder to lure away leaders and grassroots workers from the BRS.
Reports from the ground suggest that people from most villages in the state, however small the number, arrived at the rally, utilising the transport provided by the party.
Based on the organisational enthusiasm witnessed at various levels, the BRS hopes to nurture a new generation of leadership – a task largely neglected after it first came to power in 2014.
Party supremo and former Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) delivered a measured address, shorn of vitriol and abuse.
Interestingly, KCR did not refer to Chief Minister Revanth Reddy even once in his nearly 45-minute-long address, despite the latter invoking KCR almost daily to criticise the BRS and its previous administration.
Party insiders suggest KCR wants to convey that he doesn’t care what Revanth Reddy says about him and show that he’s a cut above the rest, while his critics are sort of ‘pygmies’ before him.
Rather, his focus was on emphasising how his government delivered what was not even promised, while the present Congress government has failed to honour its electoral promises..
He pointed out that even schemes implemented earlier are no longer being continued efficiently – whether it is 24/7 power, financial assistance to farmers, medical kits, or monetary help at the time of marriage of female family members.
The message: he has shown his ability to deliver, while the Congress has only shown incompetence.
Given the mood on the ground, it resonates.
A friend in Hyderabad pointed to how he had spent almost ₹2 lakh because all electrical and electronic appliances at home conked out due to sudden voltage fluctuations and power tripping.
Though the vintage KCR of the Telangana agitation days was absent, he engaged with the crowd effectively.
“Are you receiving Rythu Bandhu on time?” he asked. “No,” the crowd responded.
Ever since the Congress came to power, farmers have been upset that the annual assistance was not being paid as per schedule.
KCR also made sure to touch on economic issues that hurt.
“In my rule, land prices went up multiple times. But now you are not able to sell land even when you need to,” he pointed out.
By responding to the Maoists’ call for peace talks and appealing to the Centre to respond, rather than resort to the indiscriminate killing of tribals, KCR sought to win back the trust of left-leaning intellectuals, or at least neutralise their threat to him.
Their work against the BRS in 2023 had proven costly for KCR in the Assembly elections.
On the flip side, party insiders felt that KCR could have been more vocal in taking on the BJP, an emerging force in Telangana.
But others suggest two reasons behind KCR’s restraint: first, a desire to avoid opening two battlefronts simultaneously, as he was already engaged with the Congress; second, the possibility of keeping post-poll options open, avoiding the burning of bridges while elections are still far away and the future shape of politics remains unclear.
Notably, KCR did not outline a clear roadmap for the party’s future.
Perhaps, as he himself suggested, he is in no hurry.
He seems to believe that the Congress government will collapse under the weight of its own contradictions and the financial strain of its electoral promises.
For all we know, KCR might return to a quiet life in his farmhouse on the outskirts of Hyderabad, leaving second-rung leaders to keep the momentum alive.
Whether the rejuvenated river swells into a flood by the time the next elections arrive remains a question only time can answer.
(Edited by Dese Gowda)
