Telangana polls far off, why KCR, Revanth Reddy are raising the political tempo
BRS supremo K. Chandrashekar Rao and Congress CM Revanth Reddy chose towns 100 km apart to hold simultaneous rallies and charge against each other
The two towns in north Telangana are roughly 100 km apart. Such was the scale of accusations by the two leaders against one another, it seemed as if the election atmosphere of neighbouring Tamil Nadu had rubbed off on the state.
Assembly polls in Telangana are far off, in November 2028, and if the jamili system (one nation, one election) kicks in, as Reddy predicts it will, they could be held six months later along with the general elections of 2029.
So, what made KCR, who has been mostly confined to his farmhouse since the BRS’s assembly poll rout in 2023, step out and charge against the Congress government? Going by analysts, it is this: the continuing electoral drubbing of KCR’s party and the endurance challenges it faces.
Since losing power, after a two-term governance of the state, the BRS has shown little signs of a rebound. In bypolls, the party lost the previously held assembly constituencies of Secunderabad Cantonment and Jubilee Hills to the Congress. The ruling party also dominated the panchayat and urban local body polls last year.
Several BRS MLAs and MLCs have switched sides to the Congress. The BRS has challenged these defections in the courts and accused Gaddam Prasad Kumar, speaker of the Telangana legislative assembly, of dragging his feet on the matter.
KCR’s son and former IT minister K.T. Rama Rao has been helming the BRS affairs since KCR’s partial retirement, but cadre morale and the party’s on-ground vigour are no match to the time when KCR was at the forefront.
It explains then why KCR stepped out and addressed the Jagitial rally. In his characteristic caustic eloquence, he attacked Reddy’s governance as anti-poor and anti-development. BRS leaders, workers and supporters cheered loudly.
For that matter, the BRS supremo also chastised voters for ignoring his earnest appeals and voting the Congress to power. “And you are regretting now,” KCR mocked as he tried to corner the Congress over unfulfilled election-time promises.
The rally’s occasion was also Congress veteran Jeevan Reddy joining the BRS, an eventual result of his unending tiff with Revanth Reddy. Once a political heavyweight in the Jagitial-Karimnagar belt in north Telangana, Jeevan had served as a minister in the Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy cabinet of undivided Andhra Pradesh.
“Jeevan and I are septuagenarians, but despite the age burden, we will work for your wellbeing and rid the state of its current misfortune,” remarked KCR, calling Congress leaders ‘dharidrulu’ (wretched).
At Bhupalapally, chief minister Reddy reciprocated, using the same derogative word in Telugu for KCR. “The poor did not get houses during the wretched fellow’s rule but he, his son, nephew and daughter have built lavish farmhouses,” Reddy said, reiterating accusations about the BRS first family amassing wealth during their party’s rule.
Jeevan too came under Revanth’s fire “for joining the enemy”. Describing KCR as ‘paapala bhairavdu’ (epitome of sins), Reddy vowed to ensure KCR was not even left with the status of leader of the Opposition in the legislative assembly after the next state election.
Earlier the same day, Reddy inspected the broken Medigadda reservoir piers, which has rendered the barrage—part of the KCR administration’s Kaleshwaram lift irrigation project—largely useless. Since before the 2023 polls, the Rs 1 lakh crore mega infrastructure showpiece of KCR has been mired in project-execution controversies and corruption charges. The sinking of some Medigadda piers, just weeks before the polls, had only lent credence to the Congress’s campaign.
“Rs 1 lakh crore was spent but not even 100,000 acres of farmland could be irrigated,” taunted Reddy as he promised to bring the culprits to justice. “In the bygone era, like that of the Nizam, KCR would have been hanged for such a massive scam,” he added.
With the mega showdown, analysts say, KCR and Reddy are already setting the agenda for the next elections. Leaders of the BJP in the state, meanwhile, have described the Congress and BRS as ‘Rahu and Ketu’ from whom the state should be rescued at the earliest.
KCR’s speech came under heavy criticism from his own daughter K. Kavitha, who has parted ways following a family feud and is speculated to launch her own outfit soon. Kavitha remarked that the BRS, rather than accepting its failures and correcting course, was again blaming voters for its election defeat. “This party is not going to change in a thousand years, and they have proved that yet again,” she said.
Kavitha faulted the BRS chief for ignoring the Women’s Reservation Bill in his speech—a topic, she felt, was buzzing across the country. “The BRS’s nexus with the BJP isn’t a hidden secret anymore. No word was said against the BJP or the central government either,” she pointed out.
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