A CRISIS BEFORE KCR

His dream of leading the Opposition alliance in 2024 fast fading, the BRS chief finds himself waging a lonely battle. Can he retain Telangana at least?

- Amarnath K. Menon

The going is getting tough for Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) supremo and Telangana chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao. KCR, as he is popularly known, finds himself backed into a corner with no takers for his national foray, barring a few farmer leaders in neighbouring Maharashtra. Back home, he has to combat the growing sentiment of anti-incumbency as he seeks a third consecutive term in the Telangana assembly election later this year.

For nearly two years now, KCR has tried hard to sell his party—rechristened from the Telangana Rashtra Samithi just last year—as an alternative to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress in the hope of forming and leading a grand alliance in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. But just a few, if any, are impressed with his pitch and the BRS chief remains isolated even as the Congress and the BJP level a slew of allegations of corruption and tardy governance against his cabinet colleagues and other party leaders in Telangana.

Several BRS legislators face accusations of taking ‘cuts’ from beneficiaries of welfare programmes, including the flagship Dalit Bandhu and 2BHK housing schemes, so much so that it prompted KCR to warn them to be ready to face the sack, during the party plenary on April 27. Not willing to let the Opposition rake up the issue, the KCR government ensured that the newly appointed state BJP chief G. Kishan Reddy could not lead a delegation to an incomplete 2BHK apartments site on the outskirts of state capital Hyderabad on July 20. Reddy, who had just landed from Delhi, was stopped by the police on an arterial road near the airport, where he ended up sitting on a dharna to protest his “detention”.