The Bharatiya Rastra Samithi party led by K. Chandra Sekhar Rao in Telangana, which ruled the state for a decade after its bifurcation from Andhra Pradesh, is struggling to keep its flock together after facing an ignominious defeat in the recent assembly elections held in December last year. It has been 100 days since the Congress government under the leadership of Revanth Reddy came into force and the BRS party appears to be gasping for survival from all corners. Political experts say that the party is already on a ventilator because it is facing a serious existential crisis.
Immediately after the swearing-in ceremony of Revanth Reddy, BRS leaders started making a beeline to join the Congress party. Quite surprisingly, several former MLAs and MPs who were with the BRS for many years deflected into the Congress in no time. The party-hopping tradition turned out to be a daily ritual as we see one or two leaders deserting the BRS and joining the Congress or the BJP every day.
The situation of BRS is so pathetic that KCR is unable to finalize candidates for the upcoming parliament elections. So, those who are planning to jump into other parties are immediately offered tickets. This is just to appease them from not leaving the party. It is quite shocking that no one is coming forward voluntarily to contest from the BRS.
KCR even agreed to ally with Mayawati’s BSP which has a negligible vote share in Telangana. BSP will get two seats as per the seat-sharing agreement.
This serves as a stark reminder of the situation of the party which, three months ago, was confident of retaining the third term in the state and also tipped to emerge as a formidable force to reckon with at the national level. Quite contrastingly, the party lost power in the state and subsequently lost relevance at the national level. Now, it is on the brink of a wipe-out in the parliament elections because going by the current trend BRS might be confined to a complete zero or one or two seats at most.
Addressing a recent public gathering, CM Revanth Reddy said BRS will be vacated if he opens the gates of Congress without any hesitation. The situation of BRS is the same now.
