Bharat Rashtra Samithi president and Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, who announced his party’s list of candidates for the upcoming assembly elections on Monday, seems to have taken a very calculated risk.
It is a courageous move by KCR despite knowing that majority of the sitting MLAs have been facing a lot of anti-incumbency wave.
Yet, he did not want to disturb them, except in eight places, because he is aware that the sitting MLAs have made huge money in the last nine years and they can spend a big amount to win the seats for the party.
If the new faces are given the seats, then the party has to spend money on their behalf and if they lose because of their inexperience, it would be a double loss for the party.
Even in the seven constituencies (excluding Kamareddy) where he dropped the sitting MLAs are dropped, KCR ensured that the new comers are rich enough to win the seats – like Chalmeda Lakshmi Narasimha Rao in Vemulawada.
According to a survey done by a Hyderabad-based agency, majority of the sitting MLAs of the BRS are facing stiff anti-incumbency in their respective constituencies.
Though nearly 40 percent of the voters still want KCR to become the chief minister again, popularity of the local MLAs also play a crucial role in the victory of the BRS in the elections.
In a survey conducted in 2018, 43 percent of voters preferred to cast their vote depending on the reputation of the candidate, while only 21 percent of voters said they would vote by looking at the chief ministerial candidate and 27 percent of voters would vote for the party.
Thus, in December 2018 elections in Telangana, 14 out of 63 sitting BRS MLAs, including four cabinet ministers and the assembly speaker, had lost their seats, while five candidates, who were given tickets replacing the sitting MLAs, had won the elections.
Maybe, KCR is also under the impression that the people will continue to vote for the BRS by looking at his face and his government’s performance, and not the image of the MLAs. But such overconfidence might even back fire in the coming elections, say sources.