With BRS and national ambitions, KCR gains appetite for Andhra-wala vote

Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) chief K Chandrashekar Rao, who once gave the call “Bhaago Andhra wale” to chase away Andhraites from Telangana and likened Andhra biryani to cow-dung, is now appealing to leaders and voters in Andhra Pradesh to support his new enterprise.

KCR's 22-year-old TRS has recently transfigured into BRS, revealing the two-time Telangana chief minister's national ambitions. However, BRS lacks an electoral base outside Telangana, a formidable challenge for the party supremo wanting to make an impact in the 2024 elections, just 15 months away.

So, towards expanding party activities outside his mainstay, KCR has his immediate focus on the four neighbour states: Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Odisha.

For Karnataka, KCR has joined hands with JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy. Both parties are drawing plans to contest even the assembly polls this summer in alliance, especially in the Kalyana Karnataka region, adjoining Telangana, which was once part of Nizam's Hyderabad state.

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On the opposite side, KCR appears to have to go alone in Andhra Pradesh, the truncated state sans the super growth engine Hyderabad – thanks to the Telangana statehood movement spearheaded by him.

Political analysts say that no party in AP will align with BRS also because of the strong anti-Andhra sentiment, and unsavoury remarks against the region, its culture, and people, provoked by KCR during his rabble-rousing days. The regional conflict phase till the 2014 bifurcation is fresh in public memory.

“Democracy allows everyone including KCR to come to Andhra and seek votes. The question is if AP people will accept him. I do not think they will,” Prof DAR Subrahmanyam, noted political commentator, told Deccan Herald.

On Monday evening, KCR made Thota Chandrasekhar, a retired IAS turned businessman turned politician, the BRS's Andhra Pradesh unit head. In an event held at the BRS headquarters in Hyderabad, KCR also inducted AP politicos Chintala Parthasarathi, Ravela Kishore Babu into the BRS, apart from a few others.

All three are former all-India services officers and Thota, Ravela have a track record of shifting political loyalties. Thota, a retired IAS of Maharashtra cadre, unsuccessfully contested to the Lok Sabha and AP assemblies from the Praja Rajyam Party (2009), YSRCP (2014) and Jana Sena Party (2019).

Ravela, one time MLA who served as social welfare minister in the previous TDP government, lost the 2019 assembly poll as a Janasena candidate. He later joined the BJP.

While political observers have been since beginning doubtful of BRS's practical purpose nationally, they are certain about one aspect – “electoral rejection the party will face in Andhra Pradesh.”

“Some leaders might join any party, in this case, BRS, for reasons best known to them. What matters is the voter endorsement. BRS might not even be in a position to derail any other party's chances in AP,” says Prof Subrahmanyam.

The ruling YSRCP and opposition TDP are the main forces in AP, while Jana Sena, BJP and Congress etc., are the other parties.

Speaking on the occasion, KCR claimed that some sitting AP MLAs are also willing to join the BRS.

YSRCP reacted by saying BRS is welcome to contest in all the 175 assembly constituencies. “We are not bothered at all,” said party leader and former minister Perni Venkata Ramaiah.