KCR’s Victory in Telangana Polls: A Strategic Move Ignoring Son KTR

After leading the separate Telangana movement and securing significant victories for his party since 2014, K Chandrasekhar Rao, the supremo of Bharat Rasthra Samithi (BRS), faced defeat in the legislative assembly polls, resulting in his failure to secure a third term in office. This marks the first defeat for BRS since the formation of Telangana in 2014.

In the 119-member Telangana assembly, the Congress emerged victorious with 64 seats, while BRS managed to secure only 39 seats. The defeat can be attributed to the anti-incumbency challenge that the party failed to overcome over the course of nine-and-a-half years.

During the extensive poll campaign, BRS tried to highlight its welfare schemes for the poor. However, the implementation of these schemes granted excessive power to MLAs in deciding the allocation of funds, which led to allegations of discrimination and corruption.

KCR’s son and IT minister KT Rama Rao emphasized that Telangana had the highest job creation and GDP growth in the country. However, many sections of the population complained about the lack of employment opportunities.

Prior to the elections, KTR advised the Chief Minister to introduce fresh faces and not offer tickets to around 30 MLAs who were facing anti-incumbency sentiments. Despite this advice, KCR ended up giving poll tickets to all of them, resulting in most of those seats being won by the Congress.

To make a comeback, BRS will need to find a way to connect with rural voters. Nearly half of their 39 seats came from the Hyderabad region, where KTR’s focus on development and IT parks seemed to resonate with the voters.

Although the Congress has claimed to form the government on the night of the counting, experts suggest that the party, with its various factions, remains jittery despite winning a clear majority. The Telangana result provided a silver lining for the Congress on an otherwise dismal day, as they also lost in Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan and failed to dislodge the BJP from Madhya Pradesh.