BRS will hold a rally in SRR College Grounds in Karimnagar - the venue where BRS (then TRS) led by KCR began its journey from in May 2001.
Published Mar 04, 2024 | 5:49 PM ⚊ Updated Mar 04, 2024 | 5:49 PM
KCR speaking during an election rally. (X)
Days after BJP announced its first list of candidates for Lok Sabha elections 2024, K Chandrashekhar Rao’s BRS followed suit.
KCR, as he has popularly known, announced names for four candidates on Monday, 4 March.
BRS will field former MP B Vinod Kumar from Karimnagar, former minister Koppula Eeswar frrom Peddapally, sitting MP Malothu Kavitha from Mahabubabad, and BRS Lok Sabha leader Nama Nageswara Rao from Khammam.
Interestingly, Nama Nageswara Rao’s name as candidate from Khammam comes even as there are strong speculations that he is looking to join the BJP. BRS has already lost several MPs to BJP and Congress.
“BRS supremo decided on the names after considering the opinion of the leaders in the respective Lok Sabha constituencies,” an official press release from the BRS said.
The BRS will kick off its campaign for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections at a massive public meeting in Karimnagar in Telangana on 12 March.
The party will organise the public meeting at SRR College Grounds in Karimnagar. The BRS is sentimental about the venue as it is from where it (then TRS) began its journey in May 2001. The formation of Telangana Rasthra Samiti (TRS) took place a month earlier.
Labelled Simha Garjana (Roar of a lion), party chief K Chandrashekar Rao — KCR — addressed the first public meeting of the then TRS which drew a mammoth crowd.
It signalled the beginning of the struggle for a separate Telangana state. Since then, KCR has been kicking off all important party events from Karimnagar.
The party has decided to hold the public meeting at Karimnagar following the success of a major rally in Nalgonda recently.
KCR, who is the former chief minister of the state, ripped the incumbent Revanth Reddy government apart for making mountains out of the molehills of the Medigadda Barrage disaster.
He also sought to expose how the Congress failed to protect the interests of the farmers by surrendering the state’s control on irrigation projects, mainly Nagarjuna Sagar, to the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB).
As the image of the party is at its lowest ebb, the BRS is trying to refurbish that in time for the Lok Sabha elections. The success of the Nalgonda public meeting was like a silver lining to the dark clouds for the party.
It knows very well that if the party flounders once again as it did in Assembly elections, its future would be bleak.
The only consolation that the party has for now is that it has 38 members in the House (one member died in a road accident recently) which is by no means a mean figure.
The party wants to build the fact that Congress had won the election by polling a mere two percent more votes. The party workers, therefore should not feel dejected as the gap is not very difficult to bridge if everyone works diligently, KCR said.
Even as the party is trying to bounce back from the depths of the ignominy of defeat, the developments that are taking place are surely unnerving for its cadres.
An exodus of leaders has begun at the district and mandal level from the BRS to the Congress.
Most recently, on Sunday, 3 March, Bhadrachalam BRS MLA Tellam Venkata Rao met Chief Minister Revanth Reddy along with his family members, sending out a message that he was interested in settling down in the grand old party.
Warangal BRS Mayor Gundu Sudharani also paid a visit to Revanth Reddy, setting off speculation that more leaders would find their way to Revanth Reddy’s Jubilee Hills residence. Prior to that, three MPs had left the BRS and more of its members seemed to be packing their rucksacks.
Undeterred, the BRS supremo, interacting with leaders of Peddapalli and Karimnagar Lok Sabha constituencies at Telangana Bhavan on Sunday, said that the Karimnagar public meeting would be followed by road shows and bus yatras.
He said that he would take part in the yatras in all Assembly segments since he was very particular that campaigning for Lok Sabha should reach even villages and mandals to win the hearts of the people.
The former chief minister predicted that the schedule for the Lok Sabha elections could be expected any time after 13 March and that was the reason why he wanted to hold the public meeting a day in advance — to set the tone and tenor for the campaign that would follow.
He also insisted that the party should organise a preparatory meeting for Lok Sabha polls in each mandal. He also touched upon enlisting the support of Singareni Collieries Company (SCCL) workers by organising gate meetings.
“Organise gate meetings with them. Explain to them what the BRS had done for them in the past. Win their confidence,” he said.
In the pep-talk that he delivered to the party leaders, KCR had told them not to let depression take over them for losing the Assembly elections.
In public life, sometimes defeat is also, in a way, beneficial, since the people would know the true colours of the Congress. He recalled saying repeated in the past when he was the chief minister how important is for a political party to work for the interests of the people whether in power or out of it.
He recalled how late NTR lost elections in 1989 though he brought in several reforms but came back to power later with a massive mandate because people understood the value of NTR’s contribution to the state.
“The BRS was in this phase now. The people have already started comparing the Congress rule with that of the BRS dispensation. They would soon realise who delivers on promises and who pulls the wool over their eyes,” he said.
He also took a dig at the BJP for fomenting religious bigotry. “The BJP is obsessed with religion. But the BRS is a true-blue secular party. I want you to spread the message about the BRS’ secular credentials. There will be a triangular contest in the state and the BRS would be the ultimate beneficiary in this fight,” he said, adding that the main fight would be between the BRS and the BJP.
