Wary of the taste of his own medicine, KCR wants his MLAs to ask him before meeting CM Revanth Reddy

On Thursday, after taking oath as the MLA from Gajwel, KCR met BRS legislators to lift their spirits and motivate them to keep working for the party.

During the meeting, KCR is said to have asked his MLAs to intimate the party and consult with him before calling on Revanth, even if it is to discuss constituency-related works.

“To avoid unnecessary speculations” is how KCR is said to have justified his demand.

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The motive

The change of heart on being accessible to MLAs perhaps has little to do with course correction after a humbling defeat in the 2023 Telangana assembly elections.

It is more likely to do with damage control, to curb any perception of the BRS crumbling. The party cannot afford to look like it is in chaos ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

The statement — call it a warning or advice — is also a conscious effort by KCR to avoid getting a taste of his own medicine. It comes from a place called experience. Except he used to be on the other side.

At least five MLAs of the BRS calling on Revanth recently sparked speculations about the legislators jumping ship.

The MLAs insisting that they had called on the chief minister for developmental works in their constituency did little to dissipate the speculation.

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Learning from history

So why should his party MLAs meeting the chief minister bother KCR when the Congress has enough numbers to stay in government? A trip down memory lane tells you why.

When the BRS won the 2014 Assembly elections in Telangana, it wooed 12 out of the 15 TDP MLAs to jump ship.

After winning the 2018 elections, the BRS got 12 of the 18 Congress MLAs in the House to switch sides.

In both instances, the BRS was the beneficiary of turncoat legislators.

In neither of the instances did the BRS need additional MLAs to achieve a majority. The party already had enough numbers — just like Congress does now.

That didn’t stop KCR from welcoming legislators of other parties with open arms and shiny shawls into the BRS fold.

In 2019, when 12 Congress MLAs broke ranks and joined the BRS, it practically reduced the Congress to a non-entity in the Telangana Assembly, giving the BRS an overwhelming majority.

The ghosts of past politics, it seems, have left KCR wary of his MLAs meeting the chief minister.

After all, who is to say BRS MLAs won’t do to KCR what he rewarded former TDP and Congress MLAs for doing to their parties?