The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) will not be sending any of its members to the Parliament for this term. Six months after its defeat to the Congress party in the legislative Assembly polls, the principal opposition in Telangana has not won in even a single Lok Sabha constituency in the state. Of the 17 seats, eight went to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), eight to the Congress, and one seat was secured by the All-India-Majlis-e-Ittehadul-Muslimeen (AIMIM).
Congress won in Peddapalli (SC), Zahirabad(SC), Nagarkurnool(SC), Warangal(SC), Nalgonda, Bhongir, Mahabubabad(ST), Khammam while the BJP secured Karimnagar, Nizamabad, Secunderabad, Adilabad(ST), Chevella, Malkajgiri, Mahbubnagar, and Medak.
Exit polls had predicted that the BRS would hold on to at least Medak, the party’s home turf from where its chief, K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR), hails, but that was not to be. While KCR and party working president KT Rama Rao (KTR) had expressed confidence that they would achieve a hattrick, the party could manage only 39 seats against the Congress’ 65 seats in the 119-seat Assembly.
Following the loss in the Assembly polls after ruling for two terms, the BRS’ morale took a huge hit. Right from the time of forming the government, the Telangana Congress has criticised the BRS for ‘10 years of misrule’ and for miring the state in debt. Chief Minister and Congress president Revanth Reddy criticised KCR for corruption in the BRS’ flagship Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme, improper disbursement of welfare measures, and the state of Telangana’s coffers. Deputy CM Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka also slammed KTR for the controversy surrounding the cancellation of the much-hyped Formula E race that was to be held in Hyderabad.
Added to this, the BRS also had to deal with an exodus from the party. Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, several of its leaders quit and joined either the BJP or the Congress. MLA Kadiyam Srihari and his daughter Kadiyam Kavya joined the Congress. The Nagarkurnool, Zaheerabad, and Peddapalli BRS MPs quit and joined the two other major parties. The BRS had no choice but to field candidates with lesser political capital. As a result, the Congress won in all the three above Parliamentary segments.
The biggest loss of face for the BRS was when MLC and KCR’s daughter Kalvakuntla Kavitha was arrested in March for her alleged involvement in the Delhi liquor scam by the Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Post the arrest, the BRS held a few rallies and KCR even tried to mobilise the public in his favour but it yielded no results.
So when the Lok Sabha polls came, BJP candidates like state president Kishan Reddy (Secunderabad) and Bandi Sanjay (Karimnagar) unsurprisingly held on to their seats. Along with Nizamabad – a seat won by Kavitha in 2014 – the BJP also won in the northern districts of Adilabad and Karimnagar owing to Kavitha’s arrest and a surge of Modi wave. The Prime Minister’s campaign, terming the BRS a nepotism-filled party that was keen on promoting only KCR and his family, also worked in the BJP’s favour.
Further, the BRS lost ground support after the Assembly elections as the cadre believed that the party name change from Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) to BRS was what led to its debacle. Telangana pride was one of the BRS’ main planks, which was reflected in its name.
In the Malkajgiri Lok Sabha seat, which fell vacant after Revanth Reddy became the Chief Minister, the Congress fielded Patnam Sunitha Mahender Reddy, who lost to the more experienced Eatala Rajender. While Malkajgiri has never historically voted for the BJP, anti-incumbency against BRS and the lack of a strong Congress candidate worked in BJP’s favour.
Districts like Pedappali and Jayashankar Bhupalapally had witnessed anger against the BRS due to their proximity to the Kaleshwaram project’s barrages. In Nagarkurnool, even while the BRS fielded ex-bureaucrat RS Praveen Kumar, the Congress fielded Mallu Ravi, Bhatti Vikramarka’s brother, which motivated people to vote for the latter.
The Congress’ campaign in Warangal and Pedappali during the Assembly elections bolstered support for it during the Lok Sabha polls too, leading to wins for Kadiyam Kavya and Vamsi Krishna Gaddam respectively.
The Lok Sabha results indicate that despite KTR’s claims of bad governance against the Congress, there wasn’t any antipathy for the ruling party. Its welfare schemes such as free bus rides for women, gas cylinders for Rs 500, free power up to 200 units for those Below Poverty Line seem to have worked.