Tides turn in Telangana; BRS poised for major comeback

As Telangana heads to the polling booth on Monday, political undercurrents in the State are said to be churning fast with the winds now blowing in favour of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS).

Political analysts and party sources, citing the final leg of the high octane campaign and ground reports from the 17 Lok Sabha constituencies, say the BRS is in all probability on a major comeback, with the surge to see the party win at least 13 seats, while the ruling Congress might have to settle with two seats.

The BJP might win just one, while the Hyderabad seat appears to be a foregone conclusion for AIMIM’s Asaduddin Owaisi. Analysis of the final couple of weeks of the campaign indicate this turn in the tide, with BRS president and former Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao coming out all guns blazing, further buoyed by an overwhelming response to his bus yatra and road shows.

Massive crowds were witnessed at all the roadshows where the ‘vintage KCR’, firing on all cylinders at his political opponents, was on display.

The strategy of the BRS, to target the Congress for its failure to implement its promises, including the crucial ones for the farm sector, and the BJP, for its communal, divisive agenda, appears to have worked.

There was negativity working against the Congress, with the people suddenly being made to think how there was a sudden shortage of water, both for drinking and irrigation purposes, and how there were sudden power cuts.

This was one point that Chandrashekhar Rao repeatedly pointed out in his speeches, how things stopped working like someone turned a switch off, and how the State was falling into shambles within barely five months of the Congress in power.

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preferring other States, Statewide protests by farmers for water, for compensation and even against delays in procurement of crops, all drove the point home further. This, along with the repeated abusive criticism of the previous government, with Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy’s intemperate language becoming a topic of discussion, triggered questions on why the Congress was not doing anything to solve critical issues like water shortage and was instead blaming the previous government for the same.

The BRS think tank too used these issues to the hilt. Internal differences too are dogging the Congress, with several senior leaders campaigning against party candidates in crucial seats like Karimnagar, while the opposition being severe against those who joined the party days before the poll was announced and given seats.

Disgruntled elements are expected to deal death blows to the Congress in several constituencies. On the other hand, the BJP, which saw from its recent experiences that the Modi factor wasn’t too much of a factor in the South, also saw the hard push for Hindutva sidelining the positivity that the Ayodhya Temple brought. Backward classes, minorities and similar sections – all crucial voters in Telangana – are said to have completely turned against the saffron party, which like the Congress, is also facing the demon of internal bickering.

The campaign of Chandrashekhar Rao, with working president KT Rama Rao and T Harish Rao chipping in, coupled with the response of the people to these, are said to be the reasons, along with his own surveys and analysis from various quarters, that made the former Chief Minister confidently peg the BRS seat count at 12 to 14. Political analysts say his calculations might not be too far from the actual results, which will come out on June 4.