Triangular contests in the o ng in Telangana as BRS ghts for survival
As the State gears up for the May 13 polls, the prevailing situation shows a straight †ght between the Congress and the BJP, with the BRS also putting up a spirited †ght in some constituencies; while the ruling party in the State hopes to keep its momentu
resurgent Congress, determined to repeat its November 2023 Assembly election victory; the regional Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS), which has recently su¡ered a series of setbacks and is ghting to revive its fortunes; and the BJP, which is working to improve its tally in the State to contribute to its nationwide goal of 400 seats — together, they sum up the mood in Telangana ahead of polling for 17 Lok Sabha seats on May 13.
The ruling Congress in the State is striving to keep its momentum, banking on the six guarantees from its Assembly poll manifesto, of which four have now been fullled. It is also roping in leaders of other parties to improve its chances while taking the BRS and the BJP head on. Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy is leading the Congress campaign, assisted by Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and his Cabinet colleagues N. Uttam Kumar Reddy, D. Sridhar Babu, Ponnam Prabahakar, and Komatireddy Venkat Reddy. National leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra are also planning rallies.
AFormer Chief Minister and BRS supremo K. Chandrashekhar Rao has embarked on a bus yatra covering all the 17 constituencies, though the Election Commission slapped a two-day suspension on his campaign for the o¡ensive language he used against the rivals. BRS working president K.T. Rama Rao and former Minister T. Harish Rao are the other leaders campaigning for their party’s candidates.
Hoping to ride on the image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the slogan Ab ki baar, 400 paar, the BJP’s national leaders are extensively touring Telangana’s rural areas to improve the party’s prospects. The Prime Minister and Union Home Minister Amit Shah have addressed more than half a dozen meetings, their speeches lled with polarising rhetoric.
Changing fortunes
The State of Telangana was ocially formed in June 2014, days after the Lok Sabha election. The BRS (then TRS) was the clear front-runner in that 2014 election, bagging 11 of the State’s 17 seats, followed by two for the Congress, and one each for the Telugu Desam Party, the BJP, the All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), and the YSR Congress Party.
Five years later, however, the BRS could not reach the double digit mark, winning only nine seats despite having made a clean sweep in the Assembly elections held a few months earlier in December 2018. That 2019 election also saw the BJP emerging as a force to reckon with in Telangana, bagging four seats — Adilabad, Nizamabad, Karimnagar and Secunderabad — and providing a foothold for the party to expand its base in a State where it hitherto had a marginal presence. The Congress, licking its wounds from the drubbing it had received in the Assembly election, had managed to win three Lok Sabha seats, while the AIMIM retained its stronghold in Hyderabad.
Turncoats in demand
This time around, a quick scan of the candidate lists of the three major parties shows that several sitting MPs and senior leaders who have recently switched sides are now contesting against their previous parties. The BJP has gained the most in this regard, welcoming rivals into its fold without any reservations, hoping for an electoral pay-o¡.
The Congress too is elding turncoats. In at least four constituencies, the Congress candidates are defectors.
Over its four months in oce, the Congress-ruled State government has tried to roll out some of its poll guarantees in phases, despite nancial constraints. The party hopes that the goodwill it had won in the Assembly election will carry over to the Lok Sabha poll as well.
The BRS chief has tried to drill some condence in his cadres by saying that the party is passing through a rough patch and this is only temporary. The party also has to deal with key leaders deserting it for greener pastures.
The arrest of K. Kavitha, MLC and KCR’s daughter, had cast a shadow on the party, along with the ongoing probe into allegations that some police ocers and former BRS leaders were involved in the phone tapping case. It is also on the back foot with regard to the damaged piers of the Medigadda barrage of the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme, touted as the biggest such scheme in the world.
Nevertheless, the BRS has started targeting the government, accusing it of depriving the farmers of their irrigation sources as their crops wither due to dry reservoirs and last year’s erratic monsoon. It is also lashing out at the Congress for its failure to implement a promised ª2 lakh farm loan waiver in the rst 100 days of formation of the Congress government.
The BJP has riled communal sentiments, and talks about cancelling the State’s quota for Muslims. The charge that the BJP will change the Constitution has also caught it on the wrong foot. Another charge that the BJP is trying to ward o¡ is the accusation that it will reduce reservations for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
As D-Day nears, the prevailing situation shows a straight ght between the Congress and the BJP, with the BRS also putting up a spirited ght in some constituencies. Unlike in the previous Assembly election, where Muslims voted for the BRS and Congress alike, this year, there seems to be a clear consolidation of the community in favour of the Congress. This could provide a big boost for the party in over six constituencies where Muslims are present in sizeable numbers.