Riding high on Karnataka win, Congress throws down gauntlet to BRS in Telangana; BJP on the back foot

The BJP started going all out against the BRS after the party wrested the Dubbaka Assembly constituency from the latter in a bypoll in 2020. This was followed by the party’s strong performance in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) elections held in December 2020.

Subsequently, in November 2021, the BJP won the Huzurabad Assembly seat bypoll that was necessitated after sitting MLA Etela Rajender was dropped from the K Chandrashekhar Rao (KCR)-led BRS Cabinet. Rajender joined the BJP and fuelled it to victory.

Riding high on these successes, the BJP kept up the heat on the ruling BRS. The Congress, which was by riven by factionalism and internal differences, was not as active in its public outreach efforts. This was until the Karnataka polls last month. Now the party seems to be raring to go.

Speaking to The Indian Express, the Congress Legislative Party leader in the Telangana Assembly, Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, said: “(After Karnataka) Next is Telangana. People are fed up with BRS and the autocratic rule of KCR. Congress will repeat what happened in Karnataka. BRS will go and the BJP will be wiped out. Karnataka people have rejected the hate politics of BJP.”

As regards the BJP, the party’s humbling defeat in Karnataka seems to have dampened its morale in Telangana. While no top leader in the Telangana BJP could be reached for official comment, sources hinted at “factional feud” between “(Telangana party chief and MP) Bandi Sanjay Kumar on one side and Rajender along with some leaders on the other side”.

Telangana BJP in charge Tarun Chugh is learnt to be in talks with various party factions to “iron out their differences”. To boost the BJP rank and file’s morale, the party leadership is said to be planning public meetings in the next few weeks which might be addressed by Union Home Minister Amit Shah and even Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Adding to the churning in state politics is the central BJP’s overtures to the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in its bid to revive the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). The party’s state unit is reportedly not happy with the move. Sources said Sanjay and Union Minister G Kishan Reddy are against any tie-up with TDP in Telangana as they feel the move might result in negative voting, especially when the BJP is focused on drawing the Andhra-origin Telangana voters to its side.

On the ground, however, the BRS continues to remain in a strong position. This is mostly due to its welfare schemes. The KCR government is also planning to soon roll out its flagship “Dalita Bandhu” scheme in the remaining 118 Assembly constituencies after piloting it in the Munugode seat where a bypoll was held last year.

While the party continues to remain strong, KCR is learnt to have warned his MLAs to pull up their socks and be wary of the resurgent Congress. After initially dismissing the Congress’s win in Karnataka as “a rejection by voters of the BJP government”, the BRS has grown to see the Congress’s “threat” in the state.

KCR has also given up his efforts to stitch up an alliance of non-BJP parties at the national front and is instead concentrating on strengthening the BRS as a national party. With an eye on a possible Congress comeback, the BRS has changed its approach.

The CM’s recent outburst against the Congress, asking people to “throw Congress in the Bay of Bengal” as well as BRS MLC and his daughter K Kavitha’s open challenge to the Congress while saying that the effectiveness of the government’s welfare schemes are out there to see in every household indicate a shift in the party’s strategy.