At a time when several parts of Telangana were reeling under heavy rains and floods, the unusual silence of Bharat Rashtra Samithi president and former chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has put the party leaders and cadre in a tight spot.
While KCR’s son K T Rama Rao went to the US on a holiday, only a few BRS leaders like T Harish Rao, G Jagadish Reddy, Sabita Indra Reddy and Puvvada Ajay were seen in the field, calling on the affected families in Suryapet and Khammam.
In fact, even these leaders did not get any positive response from the people. When Harish Rao tried to create a scene in Khammam, the local people registered a strong protest and attacked them. The BRS leaders tried to blame it on the Congress for instigating the attacks.
In a way, the Congress definitely gained an upper hand in handling the flood situation. Though chief minister A Revanth Reddy did not enter the field in the first two days, most of his cabinet colleagues including N Uttam Kumar Reddy, Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy, Tummala Nageshwar Rao and deputy CM Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka had been in action from the day one.
Once the chief minister entered the scene, he has been relentlessly monitoring the flood situation and ensured that there is not much loss of life due to floods. Like his counterpart in Andhra N Chandrababu Naidu, he personally supervised the relief operations.
But KCR is nowhere to be seen. His party leaders themselves are expressing view that he should have taken the lead in calling on the flood victims and wrest the advantage from the Congress.
“The situation in the party would have been different had KCR been in action mode, go into the people and give them moral support, if not financial support. He had the great opportunity to expose lapses in the relief operations by the Revanth Reddy government,” a source said.
However, KCR refused to come out of the farmhouse. What is worse, he did not even issue a statement expressing grief over the loss of lives or damage done to the state due to floods.
“His absence has demoralised the party cadre, who are not able to attack the Congress government,” sources said.