For first time KCR's family stays away from polls

Hyderabad, March 25 (IANS) For the first time since floating TRS (now BRS) 23 years ago, the family of party founder K. Chandrasekhar Rao is staying away from Lok Sabha elections.

The former Chief Minister or his family member fought every Parliament and Assembly election since 2004.

There were speculations that KCR, as the BRS chief is popularly known, or his son K. T. Rama Rao or nephew T. Harish Rao may contest Lok Sabha elections this time. However, none of the three MLAs entered the fray.

KCR’s daughter K. Kavitha, who had lost the 2019 election from the Nizamabad Lok Sabha constituency is also not contesting this time. A member of the Telangana Legislative Council, she was recently arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in an alleged Delhi excise policy scam.

KCR, who had resigned from Telugu Desam Party (TDP) to float Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) to revive the Telangana movement in 2001, was elected to Lok Sabha from Karimnagar in 2004 and had become a minister in the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre. He had retained the seat in by-elections held in 2006 and 2008.

In 2009, KCR was elected to Lok Sabha from Mahabubnagar. It was during this term that he succeeded in achieving the goal of Telangana state.

After TRS formed the first government in Telangana in 2014, KCR became the chief minister. His son and nephew, who were once again elected to the Assembly, became ministers in his Cabinet. In the simultaneous Parliamentary elections, KCR’s daughter Kavitha was elected to Lok Sabha from Nizamabad.

While TRS retained power in 2018, Kavitha lost the Nizamabad Lok Sabha seat to BJP’s Dharampuri Arvind in the 2019 elections. She was later elected to the Legislative Council.

In the recent Assembly elections, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) lost power to Congress.

With the announcement of Gaddam Srinivas Yadav’s candidature from Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat on Sunday, the BRS has declared candidates for all 17 seats going to polls on May 13.

The party has claimed that it maintained a social balance in the selection of candidates for Lok Sabha elections in Telangana.

The main opposition party stated that KCR maintained the social balance in the selection of candidates and thus gained the confidence of all sections.

A look at the list of candidates shows that BRS has given tickets to six leaders from backward castes, three from Scheduled Castes, two from Scheduled Tribes and six from other castes.

The BRS, which had bagged nine seats in 2019, retained three sitting MPs – Nama Nageswara Rao (Khammam), Maloth Kavitha (Mahabubabad) and Manne Srinivas Reddy (Mahabubnagar).

Five sitting MPs defected to Congress or BJP while one sitting MP was elected to Assembly in the recent elections.

By picking up leaders enjoying people’s support, he created an environment where they have better prospects compared to opponents, the BRS said, claiming that the announcement of the candidates created confidence.

The party also believes that after the results of recent Assembly elections, people across the state are recalling KCR’s rule and that this feeling is getting stronger.

“In this context, the party is geared up to register its victory in Parliament elections,” it said.

The party mentioned that some candidates have already started visiting the constituencies and reaching out to people. It claimed that they are receiving good support from people.

Key leaders of the party and public representatives are gearing up to undertake extensive campaigns in all constituencies to garner people’s support.

BRS Chief KCR himself will start visiting the constituencies soon to intensify the poll campaign.