The dream of Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) to fan out pan-India may kick start with its debut in forthcoming Assembly elections in neighbouring Karnataka State.
The BRS may enter into a ‘strategic’ poll alliance with Janata Dal (Secular) led by former Karnataka Chief Minister H. D. Kumaraswamy and field candidates in the Kalyana Karnataka (KK) region, earlier known as Hyderabad Karnataka region in the erstwhile Hyderabad State.
According to highly placed sources and those privy to discussions among the key members of the BRS, this is a bid to bolster the fortunes of JD (S) in the Assembly polls by having a tie-up restricted to constituencies in the districts which border Telangana and Andhra Pradesh States even though the initial plan was to keep away from the polls.
“Mr. Kumaraswamy had telephonic discussions with the Telangana Chief Minister and BRS chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao few days ago. The two leaders are in no mood to split votes by contesting separately,” they said, not wishing to be identified since they are not authorised to share the details.
KCR, it is understood, has assured Mr. Kumaraswamy that he would personally tour the districts bordering Telangana. This includes Kalaburagi, Raichur, Bidar, Yadgir and Koppal and also Telugu speaking areas in Bellary and Vijayanagara districts.
The sources said preliminary feedback received by the party leaders is that the BRS can fight anywhere between 20 and 24 seats on its own in the border districts and one or two in Bengaluru City, where there is a sizeable Telugu speaking population.
“We do not want to merely field candidates and lose deposit and make a laughing stock of ourselves. At least eight leaders from the mainline parties in the KK region are ready to join the BRS and contest on the pink party ticket. These candidates had contested the previous elections but had lost,” they said.
Once KCR makes a trip to Karnataka, the process of migration of leaders from other parties into the BRS is expected to pick up pace, it was pointed out. BRS leaders are elated about the “success” of the public meeting in Nanded of Maharashtra and intends to the replicate the same in other neighbouring States.
The JD (S) performance in 2018 Assembly elections in Kalyana Karnataka or North Karnataka region, comprising 40 seats, has been dismal. It had won only four seats, Sindhanur and Manvi (ST) in Raichur, Bidar South (Bidar district) and Gurmitkal (Yadgir district). The Congress and the BJP bagged 21 and 15 seats, respectively. Barring the four seats, the JD (S) candidates came third in 34 constituencies and second in two other constituencies in these region.
While seat sharing deliberations are yet to begin, the tie-up once firmed up could definitely cause a dent in the Opposition vote share and benefit the BJP. Statistics of the 2018 elections reveal that the Congress and the BJP candidates won with comfortable majority of over 5,000 votes in majority constituencies.
Published - February 18, 2023 05:39 pm IST
