After having been largely successful in painting the Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) as the ‘B’ team of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Telangana Assembly elections last year, the Congress plans to employ the same strategy for the Parliament elections as well.
The indication was clear when Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said that having defeated the ‘BJP’s B-team, BRS’ in the Assembly elections, the Congress will take down the A-team itself in the Lok Sabha elections.
The strategy paid dividends to the party in the Telangana Assembly elections when voters believed in some kind of unwritten and secret understanding between the BJP and BRS. The events a year before and leading up to the elections like the removal of an aggressive Bandi Sanjay Kumar as the state BJP chief, as he was a strong critic of then chief minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, had indeed created that perception in the State. Despite the best of efforts by both the BRS and the BJP to deny any tacit understanding, the perception could not be altered.
Congress insiders and the narrative creators argue that the argument still holds good as the BRS was desperate to check the growth of the Congress in Parliament elections. By containing the Congress and reducing its numbers, BRS feels it would strengthen itself.
“In that direction, where BRS cannot give a tough fight to the Congress it would ensure the transfer of its votes to the BJP rather than the Congress. By fielding weak candidates in some constituencies, it has already sent an indication,” a Congress leader in the party war room confided.
Congress leaders also point that the arrest of BRS MLC K.Kavitha in the Delhi liquor policy scam has demoralised the BRS leadership and it is not in a confrontational mood, with the BJP expecting its return to power in New Delhi for the third term. Ensuring Congress’ defeat in favour of the BJP in some constituencies is the best it can do to open friendship channels with the BJP national leadership, the leaders feel.
That a section of the BRS leadership is desperate to align with the BJP was revealed even by rebel BRS MLA Danam Nagender while defecting to the Congress. The middle-level leadership of the BRS also favours an alignment with the BJP for survival.
Former deputy chief minister and BRS MLA Kadiyam Srihari, who switched to the Congress a couple of days ago, also claimed that BRS was not serious about fighting the BJP. He attributed this unwillingness as one of the reasons for choosing the Congress. He accepted that people continue to believe in the BJP-BRS friendship theory.
“BJP and BRS are natural allies given their past history, despite their denial. Fielding sitting MLA Padma Rao against Union Minister G. Kishan Reddy shows the BRS’ desperation. They know a sitting MLA can never be hungry for a win and his selection is to extend support to the Minister indirectly,” claims Sama Rammohan Reddy, media committee head of the Telangana Congress who is part of the party war room.
The feedback from the party and ground-level understanding have influenced Mr.Gandhi to harp on the ‘B’ team concept for this election as well. As the time goes by, the narrative is bound to pick up.
The BRS, however, is confident that there would be no takers for the Congress narrative and the arrest of Ms.Kavitha has been proved to be the vengeance of the BJP government. People have already realised that she has been arrested only because Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao opposed the policies of the Modi government.
