One of the biggest reasons for the Congress party’s loss in the Telangana assembly elections was lack of an efficient leader who could be projected as a chief ministerial candidate to take on mighty leader like K Chandrasekhar Rao, president of Telangana Rashtra Samithi.
There were too many chief ministerial aspirants in the Congress, but nobody had the stature or capacity to take on KCR.
And another drawback was that the CM candidate would be finalised by the high command in Delhi, rather than among the strong leaders in the state.
On the other hand, the BJP always goes to the elections in any state by projecting a strong chief ministerial candidate and that gave a lot of clarity to the people.
In Telangana, too, the BJP is eying power in 2023 assembly elections, cashing in on the recent victory in four Lok Sabha seats.
Since the Congress is down in the dumps, it thinks there is a chance to come to power as an alternative to the TRS.
So, it has started grooming its CM candidate in Telangana as well. According to party sources, Union minister of state for home G Kishan Reddy has emerged as a front runner in the party for the CM post.
There are more than one reason for the decision.
First, he is young and dynamic. Secondly, he hails from Reddy community, which is inclining towards the BJP after the failure of the Congress party. Since Reddys are traditionally rivals of Velamas, they are looking towards the BJP to take on the TRS chief.
Thirdly, Kishan Reddy is a good orator and has acceptability among all sections of people.
So, if the party starts grooming him from now on, he will emerge as a potential threat to KCR, party sources said.