A bruised Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) has joined hands with an unlikely partner, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), in Telangana for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. K. Chandrashekar Rao-led BRS (formerly TRS) has, in the past, forged alliances during elections with almost all major parties like the Congress, the TDP, Left parties between 2004 and 2014, and also cozied upto the NDA in 2009. This will be the first time that KCR will collaborate with Mayawati’s party in Telangana.
There had been a strong buzz of the BRS willing to work with the BJP. However, it is learnt that a majority of BJP leaders were against this idea as they felt BRS was weakening and there was no need to infuse life into it. The assessment was also based on the voters' notion that the BRS and the BJP were friendly parties which seemed to have affected the performance of the BJP candidates in the last assembly elections. A meeting between former CM KCR and BSP Telangana president and former IPS officer R.S. Praveen Kumar at the former’s residence has sealed the deal, with likelihood of one seat being allocated to Kumar and his party.
Who stands to gain from this pact?
Both the parties seem to need each other. In the recent assembly elections, BSP’s performance was dismal – it was not able to win even one seat. The BSP is hoping to win at least one MP seat with the support of the BRS, which is still a force to reckon with in the state. Also, KCR decided to embrace the BSP for the SC-reserved Nagarkurnool seat. According to sources, the party was left with no strong face to fight election as the sitting MP, who won on BRS ticket last time, P. Ramulu, shifted to the BJP. His son Bharat was named the candidate in the BJP’s first list. Exactly 10 years ago, post assembly elections in 2014, two BSP MLAs joined BRS, leaving the party with no representatives. In the 2018 assembly elections, BSP joined hands with CPI(M) and contested under the banner of Bahujan Left Front (BLF) but failed to win even a single seat. In 2023 elections, BSP centred its campaign on KCR’s rule which also did not help them in opening their account.
“We can understand how desperate BRS is,” said Hyderabad-based political analyst and former MLC K. Nageshwar. “It is hard to forget how BSP president Praveen Kumar attacked KCR during recent assembly elections calling him corrupt, arrogant and someone who failed to provide jobs.” He wondered what made BRS align with BSP when KCR and his men have dismissed Left parties in the past saying they did not have the cadre to even carry party flags. “People have the power to bring down any leader from their high pedestal,” he added.
“The fact is BJP is growing at the cost of BRS. The BJP’s vote share will increase and it will take BRS votes. These are national elections and factor is whether Modi should be the PM or not. BRS is insignificant in all of this. The Left is not ready to team up with them as they are with INDIA bloc and also because of their bitter experiences with BRS in the past. It looks like BSP is the only option left for the BRS.”
