National ambitions
Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao’s moves to take his party national are premised on the support for his pro-farmer initiatives. But will that alone be enough to take on the BJP in Delhi?
THE DECISION OF TELANGANA Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao to expand his Telangana Rashtra Samithi to a national-level political party and rename it Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), is not an overnight one, at least not for those who have followed his moves for more than a year now. The TRS was formed in 2001 with the single-point agenda of achieving statehood for Telangana, one of the three main regions of undivided Andhra Pradesh. But the intention to form the BRS was being built up, and it became all the more visible after his relations with the Bharatiya Janata Party (Bjp)-led government at the Centre soured and the saffron party began to look to grow on its own in the State.
When TRS lost to the BJP in the Huzurabad Assembly byelection in November 2021, it was perhaps the point when Rao decided to take the bull by the horns despite knowing that his was only a regional party, and it would be a long and arduous political journey to register its presence at the national level let alone make an impact.
BUILDING SUPPORT
Rao has clearly put his faith in the work his government has done among farmers: 24×7 free power supply for agricultural pump sets, investment support of Rs.5,000 an acre to farmers for two crop seasons in a year under the ‘Rythu Bandhu’ scheme, life insurance cover of Rs.5 lakh to all landholding farmers aged
between 18 and 59 under the ‘Rythu Bima’ scheme, and increased irrigation facilities. His attempts to reach out to farmers across the country also played a role in his decision.
Rao also visited other States and met leaders of regional parties, among them Mamata Banerjee, M.K. Stalin, Arvind Kejriwal, Akhilesh Yadav, Nitish Kumar, Uddhav Thackeray, Hemant Soren, Bhagwant Mann, and Tejashwi Yadav,
and national-level leaders such as Sharad Pawar, H.D. Deve Gowda, and Lalu Prasad. However, a majority of them were of the view that only a national-level front that includes the Congress can take on the BJP.
This was a non-starter for Rao because teaming up with the Congress at the national level is bound to have an impact on his party’s electoral prospects in Telangana where the Congress is the main opposition.
Rao could convince only two regional parties, Janata Dal (Secular) from Karnataka and Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) from Tamil Nadu, about his plan. As a result, only H.D. Kumaraswamy (JD-S) and Thol. Thirumavalavan (VCK), besides the leaders of a few farmers’ organisations, turned up for the launch of the BRS in Hyderabad on October 5, the day of Dasara.
Both Kumaraswamy and Thirumavalavan welcomed Rao’s decision to launch BRS and go national, and said that there was a need for such voices to take on the BJP. The Left parties have extended their support to Rao in the byelection to the Munugode Assembly seat on November 3, the first electoral contest for the BRS. They have reservations about sailing with the BRS at the national level as they believe that only a front that includes the Congress can take on the BJP at the Centre.
Rao announced an ex-gratia payment of Rs.3 lakh each to the kin of about 750 farmers who had died during the prolonged agitation in 202021 against the three now-repealed farm laws brought by the Centre and personally distributed cheques to some of the kin in Chandigarh, Ranchi, and Patna. He also announced Rs.10 lakh ex-gratia to the kin of each Indian soldier who died in the clashes with the Chinese at Galwan Valley and handed over cheques to some of the kin.
SUPPORT IN BORDER AREAS
Sources in the BRS said the support of farmers and other sections to the Telangana government’s welfare schemes in the border areas along Maharashtra and Karnataka may also have emboldened Rao to test the waters outside Telangana. That was perhaps why he announced on October 5 that the areas of Maharashtra that formed a part of the erstwhile Hyderabad State would be the testing ground for BRS. In some border villages in Maharashtra, local leaders were apparently all praise for the BRS schemes, and there is good support for the Rythu Bandhu scheme in particular in the border areas of Karnataka. A BJP MLA apparently even demanded Telangana-like schemes in Karnataka.
Rao stated in the Assembly during the last monsoon session that several Maharashtra farmers in villages bordering Telangana had bought small plots of land on the Telangana side, sunk borewells or open wells to take benefit of 24×7 free power for agricultural pump sets, and had installed pipes to irrigate land on the Maharashtra side.
“Officials brought the matter to our notice and proposed acting against them. But I have instructed them not to do so on the grounds that they are small farmers and eke out a living from farming, even though they may not belong to Telangana,” Rao said in the Assembly.
There are two schools of thought on Rao expanding the footprint of his party. His political detractors say that any attempt to politically venture out of Telangana is bound to fail. But within the BRS, the thought is, if the Aam Aadmi Party can do it, why can’t the BRS?
“We have every trait to go national, and the wide support for our farmer-oriented and Dalit Bandhu schemes give us a platform for acceptance outside Telangana. Although we have a farmer-centric agenda to begin with, our ideology, philosophy, agenda and policies will be more pronounced in the coming days,” said B. Vinod Kumar, Vice Chairman of the State Planning Board and a part of the BRS think tank. Speaking to mediapersons recently, K.T. Rama Rao, working president of the BRS and a Minister in the Rao Cabinet, said: “We are aware of the challenges ahead and also of the fact that we will be hounded by the ‘hunting dogs’ of the BJP. But we are determined to take on the forces that have become inimical to the federal structure of the country.”
Support for Telangana’s schemes in Maharashtra and Karnataka border areas may also have led to Rao’s decision.
GIMMICK, SAYS OPPOSITION
The Congress and the BJP have dubbed Rao’s decision as a political gimmick to stave off the increasing anti-incumbency factor in the State and an attempt to divert people’s attention from more pressing issues such as unemployment. Pradesh Congress Committee president A. Revanth Reddy said the time had come for the BRS to pack up in Telangana and the party had chosen to go national as a way out. BJP State president Bandi Sanjay said Rao wanted to address problems faced by the country when he had failed to resolve problems faced by the State.
MUNUGODE’S IMPORTANCE
The TRS has formally requested the Election Commission for the name change to BRS, and it may happen in the next few weeks. But becoming a national party by winning electoral support in other States will be a long road ahead for the BRS leadership. The immediate challenge is for it to win the Munugode Assembly byelection and demonstrate that it is ready to take on the BJP and the Congress.
Rao’s oratory skills, which came in handy during the statehood agitation, and his command over Hindi can prove advantageous in striking a chord with the northern electorate when compared to other leaders from the south. The ease with which he handles the national media in New Delhi and elsewhere during his visits proves this point.
His equations with other party leaders during his stint as a Union Minister during the UPA-I government, and the wide-ranging consultations with regional leaders during the statehood agitation could work to his advantage as well, but that would depend on how those leaders react to the BRS. m