The meeting is being viewed as a potential launchpad for renewed BRS cadre mobilisation, which could power mass protests, particularly in upland and drought-prone areas.
Published Dec 15, 2025 | 10:42 PM ⚊ Updated Dec 15, 2025 | 10:42 PM
BRS President and former Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao will chair a joint meeting of the Legislature Party and State Executive Committee. The focus will be on the state’s irrigation projects and interstate water-sharing disputes.
Synopsis: With recent local body elections indicating signs of a BRS revival, the planned meeting and follow-up actions could further sharpen political polarisation in Telangana over resource allocation—a persistent fault line since the State’s formation in 2014.
The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) has convened a crucial meeting of its senior leaders on Friday, 19 December, to chalk out a plan to reposition itself as the prime defender of Telangana’s rights over water.
In a statement released on Sunday, 14 December, Telangana’s principal Opposition party said its President and former Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao — KCR — will chair the scheduled joint meeting of its Legislature Party and State Executive Committee at Telangana Bhavan in Hyderabad.
The meeting will focus on concerns surrounding the State’s irrigation projects and interstate water-sharing disputes, the statement said.
The objective is to discuss the issues and build momentum for ground-level agitations to secure what the party described as justice for the people in the affected regions.
The meeting is being viewed as a potential launchpad for renewed BRS cadre mobilisation, which could power mass protests, particularly in upland and drought-prone areas.
With recent local body elections indicating signs of a BRS revival, the development could further sharpen political polarisation in Telangana over resource allocation—a persistent fault line since the State’s formation in 2014.
The decision to convene the meeting underscored KCR’s intent to deliberate on what he termed the “neglect” of major irrigation initiatives launched during the BRS’s decade-long rule between 2014 and 2023.
Central to the discussions will be allegations of the incumbent Congress government’s failure to protect Telangana’s share of Krishna and Godavari river waters amid what the BRS alleged, continued diversions by neighbouring Andhra Pradesh.
The Palamuru–Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme (PRLIS), a flagship project of the previous BRS regime, is expected to receive particular attention. The project aims to irrigate over 12.3 lakh acres in drought-prone districts, including Mahabubnagar (now Nagarkurnool), Rangareddy, Vikarabad and Nalgonda, by lifting water from the Krishna River.
The BRS claimed it had secured an allocation of around 91 TMC ft for the project. It accused the Congress government of diluting the allocation by agreeing to only 45 TMC ft during talks with the Centre.
The party described the dilution as a “shameful surrender” that compromised farmers’ interests.
The BRS alleged that the Congress government had “knelt before the Centre.”
BRS’s fusillade comes in the wake of Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy’s statement that the government was pursuing a total allocation of 90 TMC ft for PRLIS—45 TMC ft through minor irrigation reallocation and another 45 TMC ft through inter-basin adjustments— while pressing for the immediate allocation of the first tranche.
Work on the project had reportedly lost momentum since the Congress assumed office in late 2023, amid pending Central Water Commission (CWC) clearances and escalating costs.
The BRS further alleged that the Congress government had failed to check Andhra Pradesh’s “diversion and exploitation” of Krishna and Godavari waters, resulting in a “grave injustice” to Telangana.
Criticising the Union government and the eight BJP MPs from the state for their inaction, the BRS accused them of facilitating Andhra Pradesh’s projects, including river interlinking initiatives.
Disputes over the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal–II (KWDT-II) allocations and Godavari water sharing remain unresolved, with the riparian States failing to reach an agreement. While some progress has reportedly been made on management boards during bilateral talks in 2025, the core issues of allocation remain unsolved.
Besides irrigation, the meeting is expected to address organisational matters and chart a roadmap for statewide public movements.
Party leaders are understood to believe that only “direct public struggles” can counter what they perceive as injustices meted out to Telangana by the central and the State governments. The party maintained that if it had remained in power, water from PRLIS would have already reached farmers in the affected regions.
The developments came as the BRS sought to reposition itself as the principal defender of Telangana’s water rights after its electoral drubbing in 2023. Having mounted agitations on similar issues in the past, the party has been viewing irrigation as a potent rallying point against what it described as the Congress government’s “apathy”.
(Edited by Majnu Babu).
