As part of his ambitious plan to increase his footprint outside his home state ahead of 2024 general elections, Telangana Chief Minister and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) founder K Chandrashekar Rao staged a massive show of strength in Maharashtra on Monday as he arrived with a huge entourage of over 600 cars and SUVs for a pilgrimage to Pandharpur and Tuljapur.
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.
As KCR entered Maharashtra in a bus through the Solapur border - people on both sides of the road welcomed with by waving pink flags and flower petals amid slogans of - “abki baar…kisan sarkaar”.
KCR was accompanied by his ministers, MPs, MLAs and MLCs - and hundreds of cars and SUVs accompanied the bus in which KCR was travelling. Sitting on the left seat in the front, KCR responded to the cheers and greetings of his supporters.
On Tuesday, KCR would take 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.
In a related development, NCP’s Bhagirath Bhalke would be formally joining the BRS. Bhalke is the son of late NCP MLA Bharat Bhalke who died of post-Covid complications in November, 2020. In the bye-elections that followed, the NCP fielded Bhalke as its official candidate for the Pandharpur Assembly, however, he lost to BJP's Samadhan Audate.
This would be the fifth visit of the KCR in Maharashtra this year - the others being on Nanded (5 February), Loha in Nanded district (26 March), Aurangabad, which is now known as Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (24 April) and Nagpur (16 June).
The MVA is watching his moves cautiously in view of the fact that the Congress-NCP, during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, has suffered a dent in vote bank because of Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) and Asaduddin Owaisi-led All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM).
Reacting to the development, Maharashtra Congress President Nana Patole said BRS is BJP's B team and will have no impact on Maharashtra politics. “The people of the state know who benefits from the division of votes. In Telangana, the BRS party is facing a crisis and many of its leaders are joining the Congress party. The Telangana pattern is just as deceptive as the Gujarat pattern,” said Patole.
On the entourage, he said: “It is understood that Telangana Chief Minister KCR is bringing a fleet of 600 cars from Hyderabad this year. Given that in Pandharpur, 1 million warkaris gather on Ashadhi Wari, is it right for KCR to bring more people from outside?”.
“KCR’s intentions don’t appear to be honourable… He’s trying to divide the Opposition votes in Maharashtra, but he won’t succeed,” said Shiv Sena (UBT) chief spokesperson Sanjay Raut.
NCP MLC Amol Mitkari alleged that KCR and his team are “eating mutton-chicken” while on pilgrimage.
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