Many BRS leaders feel K Chandrashekar Rao has put A Revanth Reddy on a long leash — perhaps for a year — before going for the latter's jugular.
Published Sep 26, 2024 | 4:00 PM ⚊ Updated Sep 26, 2024 | 4:00 PM
Telangana CM Revanth Reddy and BRS supremo KCR
BRS supremo and Opposition leader in Telangana K Chandrashekar Rao has been maintaining a sphinxlike silence ever since his party lost the Assembly elections in December 2023.
Taunts by the Congress, often sarcastic and rude, failed to make KCR speak as he remained like a recluse in his farmhouse at Erravalli in the Siddipet district.
Some felt the former chief minister was on a sabbatical while many others opined that he was watching the performance of the A Revanth Reddy-led government in Telangana.
He made a brief appearance in the Assembly once but remained silent. Outside the Assembly, KCR said he would tear into the Congress government. However, he soon went into silent mode.
Poking fun at KCR, Revanth Reddy said he visited the Assembly since he was afraid that either his son KT Rama Rao or nephew T Harish Rao would usurp his position as the Opposition leader.
Soon after the poll debacle, KCR attended a public meeting in Nalgonda and attacked the Congress for surrendering the state’s rights on irrigation projects to the Centre. Later, he addressed a few meetings ahead of the Lok Sabha elections and after his party’s total rout, withdrew into a shell.
In KCR’s absence, KTR and Harish Rao are leading the BRS charge, criticising the government at any given opportunity. For months, Harish Rao tried to take the wind out of Revanth Reddy’s sails on the crop loans waiver issue. He found traction with the farmers as the government filtered out many beneficiaries based on their socio-economic status.
Harish Rao also took up the issue of the inordinate delay in disbursing Rythu Bharosa amounts to farmers. In essence, he has been trying to take up farmer-related issues.
In contrast, KTR, with his vehement and combative speeches, is taking Revanth Reddy head on every day. KTR, who is seen more as an urban leader, has been focusing on Hyderabad and the “lopsided” policies, like the constitution of the Hyderabad Disaster Response and Asset Protection Agency (HYDRAA) and availing ₹1.5 lakh crore for the Musi Riverfront Project, which he alleged was a goldmine for Congress leaders. He has been uncovering a number of alleged scams taking place under the Revanth Reddy regime.
Though both of them have been targeting the Congress government, the question about KCR’s absence in leading the BRS attack remain unanswered. The BRS leaders while combating Revanth Reddy effectively are understood to have requested the former chief minister to lead from the front as KCR can switch on his charm whenever he wants to cast a spell on the audience.
It is said that once KCR begins speaking, his detractors would have to run for cover. The BRS leaders yearn for his return to active politics as the sands under their feet are fast slipping away with about 10 legislators joining the Congress camp and many more lying in the wait.
The party cadres, too, are in a state of disarray after the outfit’s total rout in the Lok Sabha polls. Though the BRS leaders keep saying that the difference of votes between the Congress and the BRS was only 1.5 percent in the Assembly elections and that the BRS can easily bounce back, the cadres remain far from being convinced without KCR at the forefront.
Similarly, the BRS leader justified their rout in the Lok Sabha elections, saying people looked at national parties and gave their verdict. They reasoned that people felt regional parties have no role, and hence the BRS’s poor performance.
According to sources, KCR seems to be biding his time to strike. It looks as though he wants to give enough time, about one year, to the Congress regime and then go for its jugular. He reportedly reasoned with BRS leaders that it may look puerile to attack the Congress based on its performance over a few months which is not enough time to judge one’s capabilities.
Party leaders said they are sure that KCR would come out, and when he does, he would stun the Congress government and the chief minister into silence, since they feel that Revanth Reddy’s mistakes far outnumber his good deeds. They referred to the carte blanche given to HYDRAA which has been pulling down the houses, which they believe, have distanced the poor from the Congress.
Meanwhile, party workers are dejected over the turn of events that led to the arrest of KCR’s daughter and MLC K Kavitha who used to be Telangana’s cultural ambassador. Though she is out on bail in the Delhi liquor policy scam, she has yet to pull herself together and come out in the open.
In case the high court or the Supreme Court disqualifies the 10 BRS MLAs who have joined the Congress, KCR will have to take the plunge to steer the party to victory in the by-elections. It would be one valuable opportunity for the party to retrieve lost ground. The party leaders believe that since the state government’s policies so far could not satisfy the farmers, BRS could connect with them easily since KCR used to pay them Rythu Bharosa regularly.
There is also a growing impression that KCR is reluctant to cross political cudgels with Revanth Reddy as he does not consider him his equal — or even as the chief minister. BRS sources said KCR might be thinking that if he begins addressing Revanth Reddy, it would be like treating him on a par.
When KCR was the chief minister, he never uttered Revanth Reddy’s name, except for a few vague references during the run up to the Assembly election.
(Edited by Majnu Babu).
