Mumbai: As part of his ambitious plan to increase the his footprint outside his home state ahead of 2024 general elections, Telangana Chief Minister and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) founder K Chandrashekar Rao’s Maharashtra visits seemed to yield results as it won seats and posts of Sarpanch in the Gram Panchayat elections in this western Indian state.
According to latest reports, the BRS has won 9 GPs in Bhandara district in Vidarbha region and one GP in neighbouring Beed district in Marathwada region.
According to BRS national special media in-charge Jayant Deshmukh, in 18 places, the party’s Sarpanch has been elected.
“The BRS is gaining momentum in Maharashtra,” he posted on X microblogging site.
KCR, as Rao is popularly known, plans to contest all the 48 Lok Sabha seats and 288 Vidhan Sabha constituencies in Maharashtra in 2024 - and had already started preparations stunning the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi, which feared division of votes and also proving to be a concern for the ruling Maha Yuti.
In 2023, KCR had addressed half a dozen rallies in Maharashtra and took darshans at the Lord Vitthal-Rukmini temple at Pandharpur and Solapur district and the Tulja Bhavani temple at Tuljapur in Osmanabad district - ahead of Ashadi Ekadashi festivities.
It may be mentioned, a BRS Sarpanch was elected in Ambehola village of Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district (earlier Aurangabad) in May followed by another Sarpanch winning in Savkheda village of Jalgaon district in June.
So far, he has personally touched base in Marathwada and Vidarbha regions - and in the he has given the call ‘abki baar, kisan sarkar’ and spoke about the Telangana-model of governance.
Marathwada incidentally is part of the erstwhile Hyderabad state.
The Marathwada and Vidarbha regions share a border with Telangana and people in the geographical belt have a close association.
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