The Maha Vikas Aghadi, comprising Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena (UBT) is unamused by KCR's frequent visits to Maharashtra.
KCR speaking at the public meeting in Solapur. (Twitter)
When Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao set off on his one-of-its-kind visit to Maharashtra earlier this week, he was keen on making a show of it.
Whether it was the convoy of hundreds of cars — 600, as claimed by his party — or the temple runs in Maharashtra by KCR, as he popularly known, or his fiery speeches taking on all the parties in Maharahstra while inducting former leaders of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) or Congress into the BRS, KCR was keen on leaving a mark on Maharashtra’s political landscape.
Incidentally, “car” is also the symbol of KCR’s BRS party. What better way to parade the party symbol while declaring clear intent to make headway in Maharahstra than a convoy of hundreds of cars? The 26-27 June visit to Maharashtra was KCR’s fifth to the state in four months.
Ever since he made his national political aspirations public and changed the name of his party from Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) to Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS), Chandrashekar Rao has been visited several states, setting up BRS offices and inducting leaders.
There has, however, been a special focus on Maharashtra.
Leaders of BRS insist that the party sees a real chance of expansion in the neighbouring state and KCR is keen on pulling out all stops to make headway.
Party leaders point out to three key reasons why KCR is confident that if BRS is to make a mark politically outside Telangana, its best chances are in neigbouring Maharashtra.
Four districts of Maharashtra share a border with Telangana — Nanded, Yavatmal, Chandrapur and Gadchiroli. The geographical proximity, BRS believes, helps the party focus on border districts and begin its political journey into Maharashtra from the peripheries.
Before the reorganisation of states, the Marathwada region in current-day Aurangabad Division of Maharashtra was part of Hyderabad state under the Nizam’s rule.
The two states share cultural similarities. BRS hopes to cash in on this cultural history, coupled with the Telugu-speaking population along the border districts in Aurangabad, Nagpur, and Amaravati divisions of Maharashtra.
KCR’s focus, too, has been on these three divisions. He has set up a BRS office in Nagpur, and has addressed public rallies in Nanded, Aurangabad, and Solapur. BRS’s current focus is on southern Maharashtra with a keen eye to make an impact among OBC voters.
With pitches of schemes like Rythu Bandhu — a pro-farmer incentive initiative — uninterrupted electricity supply to villages, construction of roads and infrastructure development under the BRS government in Telangana, KCR hopes to woo farmers living on the other side of the border in Maharashtra.
“When farmers in the neighbouring districts see the development Telangana is undergoing, they demand the same from their leaders. BRS promises to replicate it in Maharashtra too. We are a new state, yet our pace of development has been faster, even in rural areas,” a senior office bearer of the BRS told South First.
“People can see the difference between the villages of Telangana and the ones in Maharashtra, despite sharing the same geographical challenges, and are surprised,” said the office bearer, adding that the party’s development pitch in Maharashtra is an excercise in “show and tell”.
Despite the many key players in Maharashtra politics, BRS leaders believe there is a political vaccum.
“Whether it is the family’s infighting in NCP with Sharad Pawar’s health being a concern, or the factionalism in the Shiv Sena, with the party split into two, there is a political vaccum that we see and want to take up that opportunity,” the office bearer said.
The BRS believes that both parties have lost control over their cadres.
The two national parties — the BJP and the Congress — have a strong presence in Maharashtra, yet the BRS believes that it can work its way up to leave a mark in the state, starting from the rural constituencies.
With leaders joining from other parties, the BRS has begun building up a cadre in the bordering divisions.
KCR’s frequent visits, public addresses, inducting leaders from other parties into the BRS, his no-holds-barred declaration of intent to expand the party in Maharashtra and contest polls, has drawn criticism from other parties in the state — especially the Congress, Sharad Pawar’s NCP, and Uddhav Thackaray’s Shiv Seva (UBT).
All three parties — that together form the Maha Vikas Aghadi, the united Opposition front in Maharashtra — have deemed BRS the “B Team of BJP”, a claim rejected by KCR.
The BJP, on its part, has deemed BRS the ‘A Team’ of the Congress, even as KCR insists that he is nobody’s A or B team.
The Telangana chief minister and BRS patriarch isn’t the first non-Maharashtrian politician to try his luck at politics in the state. His party also isn’t the first to attempt to make inroads into Maharashtra.
Before KCR and his BRS, from Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party to Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party to even Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party, several leaders and parties have unsuccessfully attempted to take a bite out of Maharashtra’s vibrant political pie.
BRS, however, firmly believes that Maharashtra is its best bet at political expansion beyond Telangana.
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