The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) led by former Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, which suffered a humiliating defeat in the last month’s assembly elections in the state, is making efforts to bounce back.
The party has begun the preparations in the right earnest to regain its lost ground in the Lok Sabha elections and the constituency-wise reviews to identify the right candidates for the general elections will take place from January 6.
So far, KCR’s son and BRS working president K T Rama Rao has been reigning supreme in the party in the absence of his father, who is now bed-ridden following a hip replacement surgery.
He has already held a meeting of the party leaders of Chevella parliamentary constituency and declared that sitting MP G Ranjith Reddy would contest the Lok Sabha elections again from the same constituency.
But according to internal reports from the party, KCR has other plans. He is said to be of the view that KTR has not been able to get connected with the party leaders and cadres at the grassroots level.
Even with the people in the rural areas, KTR has not been able to establish his connect and is still inaccessible for them. That is why, the BRS lost in the rural areas, while it won majority of the seats only in Hyderabad and adjacent constituencies.
Apparently, KCR is contemplating sending KTR to Lok Sabha, where he can get better visibility to the party. Back home, he wants to replace KTR with his nephew T Harish Rao, who has been able to penetrate deep into the rural areas.
Harish Rao has also the ability to gel with the party cadre at all levels and has accessibility for the party leaders and also voters. He also has better organising skills, besides being an effective orator. That, KCR thinks, will be a plus point.
So, Harish Rao might take over as the BRS working president ahead of Lok Sabha elections and lead the party from the front. That doesn’t reduce the clout of KTR in any manner and he will continue to be projected as the successor of KCR in the party.
Even if the BRS fails to make it big in the Lok Sabha elections, the blame will go to Harish Rao and not KTR!