KCR’s silence puts BRS cadre in Maharashtra in a dilemma

The former Telangana CM seems to have scaled back his plans for the western State after losing his home State in the last Assembly election

The once-promising trajectory of Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) chief K. Chandrashekhar Rao or KCR’s national political ambitions faced a setback following the Telangana Assembly election defeat in December last year.

Mr. Rao, who vigorously pursued national politics after rebranding the party from Telangana Rashtra Samithi to BRS during his chief ministerial tenure, tried to promote the slogan of ‘Ab Ki Baar, Kisan Sarkar’ in multiple meetings across Maharashtra, aiming to establish the party as a potent national political force.

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However, the party’s defeat in its home State left his plans in disarray and led to a strategic silence from Mr. Rao. This has left leaders in Maharashtra in a state of confusion and indecision. With the Lok Sabha election looming, leaders are grappling with the dilemma of whether to align with the BRS, form a new party, or merge with existing political entities in the western State.

“He lost elections in Telangana, which we didn’t expect, and he also had an injury. Now, though he is appearing in public, he is unresponsive to our repeated calls and messages,” said the party’s Maharashtra Kisan Morcha chief Manik Kadam.

Recently, the leaders convened in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (previously Aurangabad) to deliberate on their next steps. A communiqué was sent to the BRS president, urging clear instructions on the party’s Maharashtra intentions, with a one-week deadline for a response. “The political future of our party leaders, including a few ex-MLAs and an ex-MP, is at stake. He can’t go incommunicado and leave us hanging in the air,” Mr. Kadam said.

The party has held half-a-dozen impressive public meetings – the first rally in Nanded on February 5, another at Kandhar-Loha in Nanded, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Solapur, Pandharpur and Sangli. It set out to appeal to the farming community with its slogan but could not make much of an impact as could be seen from the party’s performance in the elections to the posts of directors of the Agricultural Produce Market Committee in Nanded district.