What led to BRS’ fall in Telangana? Cadres point to uncomfortable reality — a disconnect

Now, this age-old wisdom finds resonance in the recent failure of the BRS in the 2023 Telangana Assembly elections, which witnessed the rout of the party led by K Chandrashekar Rao — better known as KCR — and the emergence of Congress after a 10-year-long wait since the formation of Telangana.

KCR, who had not experienced any defeat since his debut failure in 1983, tasted defeat in Kamareddy this time.

The Congress won 64 seats, including those never previously won by the party after NT Rama Rao founded the TDP.

What was surprising about the result was not the loss of the BRS but the complete absence of the party cadre at Pragathi Bhavan (now called Jyotirao Phule Praja Bhavan) on the day of polling or at the time of counting.

Barely two weeks after the polls, cadres of the BRS are slowly acknowledging what went wrong for the party in the polls.

Disheartened with the results, cadres have begun to identify the loopholes in the BRS’ functioning. At the crux of the problem, they believe, is KCR’s disconnect with people after assuming the chair of the chief minister.

Several reasons were being discussed in political circles, while the cadre and key functionaries within the parties pointed fingers at KCR for the rhetorical question, ‘How did BRS lose?’

South First spoke to several cadres of the BRS on what they thought was the reason for the downfall of the party led by KCR.

Also Read: Bandi Sanjay likely to return as Telangana BJP chief

Lost connection with people

It was almost hard for many of the cadre and local level leaders to recollect when they last saw their party chief KCR mingling with them, apart from around 96 public meetings organised during this election season.

KCR shot to prominence in his 13-year-long fight for the statehood of Telangana because of his presence at the grassroots and camaraderie with the public.

However, ever since Telangana achieved statehood and KCR achieved power, the bond seemed to have weakened. Whether busy with administrative work or for reasons known best to the KCR himself, he isolated himself from the public.

As the people of Telangana have historically suffered under the Nizam rule and the British government and are critical of the idea of a feudal set-up, the idea of projecting KCR as a feudal lord worked in favour of the Congress.

“The Congress successfully projected KCR and his family members as arrogant, and it has been amplified with KCR isolating himself in Pragathi Bhavan or his Erravalli farmhouse,” a key BRS leader on condition of anonymity told South First.

Speaking along similar lines, a source close to the BRS told South First, “All that KCR did for the election was to address 96 public meetings, and the response was impressive, but the essential ingredient to counter the Congress narrative in electioneering was missing. Mingling with people, shaking hands, having conversations, which were actually KCR’s trademarks, were missing.”

The cadre and party members also shared the same opinion about the Rao family members.

“Barring road shows and public meetings, KTR, Harish, and Kavitha didn’t engage in any mass contact programmes, even though they could draw a crowd and rebuild the image,” the source added, referring to KCR’s son and BRS working president KT Rama Rao, his nephew and former finance minister T Harish Rao, and his daughter and party MLC K Kavitha.

This was when the Congress was on the road, where they held declaration meetings for specifically targeted communities, such as Minority Declaration, Backward Classes (BC) Declaration, and Youth declaration.

This was coupled with the mass contact programmes undertaken Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president and current Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, and his deputy Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka. They participated in walkathons as a part of Haath Se Haath Jodo Yatra — an extension of Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra.

On the other hand, the BRS top brass barely made their presence felt on the ground and were weak in countering the Congress narrative.

Also Read: Harish Rao fires first BRS salvo at the Revanth Reddy

Resentment against MLAs

“With the same MLA faces, it was clear by the start of the election code that we were losing in many segments,” a BRS leader who looked after poll works told South First.

There was a strong anti-opinion against the MLAs because of their inaccessibility, non-resolution of local issues, and corrupt activities.

Reportedly, many party functionaries, including the former poll strategist company IPAC that was at one point hired by the BRS, suggested changing 30-40 MLAs.

“As per my inputs, KTR, too, suggested the same to KCR, but KCR didn’t heed him; he was of the opinion that denying tickets to wealthy MLAs would make them shift to the Congress and the BJP and undermine the anti-incumbency factor,” one of the members who worked for the BRS in a poll strategy team told South First. 

“The result of changing the MLAs has been seen in the places where at least 13 MLAs are changed; the BRS won nine of them,” the source added.

This is one of the failed decisions by the BRS supremo who couldn’t sense what awaited him on the polling day. Things didn’t go as planned.

Many of the MLAs were contesting for the third time on the BRS ticket, which was against the ambitions of the local cadre who have built aspirations of becoming an MLA as their next step on the political ladder.

The MLAs were not changed to avert the impending danger of them shifting their allegiance and to retain most of the political leaders within the BRS. However, the cadre sensed that the future had shifted to the Congress and the BJP.

At least eight former MLCs, 58 corporators, and 82 zilla parishad members of the BRS shifted to the Congress, a source said.

Also Read: No anti-incumbency, BRS seeking third term due to people’s expectations

Derailed schemes

The old and new promises of the BRS government are highlighted as failures and lies by KCR.

— a close source of BRS said.

The two popular welfare schemes of the BRS government, Rhythu Bandhu (launched six months ahead of the 2018 Assembly polls) and Dalit Bandhu (launched in 2021 ahead of the Huzurabad by-poll), were neither promised in the manifesto nor was a popular request from the public.

“Yet, it has to be noted that KCR implemented the schemes and made them a strong pitch for the BRS considering their large-scale beneficiaries,” a source pointed out.

While benefitting a large number of people, the Rythu Bandhu scheme predominantly favoured land-owning farmers, excluding the tenant farmers.

Despite the substantial financial assistance of ₹5,000 per acre per season (twice a year) to 64 lakh farmers’ accounts, it didn’t yield favourable results.

The anger of tenant farmers is further strengthened by the narrative of “feudal benefiting the feudal in the state”.

The promotion of agricultural landlords, on the other hand, has not completely created a positive image, as many are grappling with issues related to the Dharani portal for title deeds. A significant number of them lack proper records, leading to the granting of land titles to previous owners despite having purchased the lands.

Dalit Bandhu, a scheme that promised ₹10 lakh to eligible Dalit families to start businesses, was initiated by the state government. Though it was expected to boost the winning prospects among the Dalit votes, it reached only about 100 families in each constituency in the first phase, and the remaining funds have not been released so far.

This angered the rest of the community, as only 38,600 Dalit families benefited through the scheme from around 1.5 lakh beneficiaries.

Another scheme causing discontent was the double-bedroom house initiative, leaving the party cadre unable to address the concerns due to its slow-paced progress.

One of the cadres from Versmoor village in the Sathupally constituency in the Khammam district told South First that out of the 600 houses applications, only 60 had been constructed and out of them only some were provided documents and others were yet to receive them, causing heartburn when they went for the campaign.

Ultimately, the cadre still regards KCR as a towering figure in the fight for Telangana statehood, carrying that image always with him.

However, he has miserably failed due to his perceived inaccessibility — seen as arrogance — the absence of mass contact programmes, deliberate refusal to heed political advice, and reluctance to implement necessary changes.