By The saying “ships turn into carts, and carts turn into ships” aptly describes the current political scenario of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS). After the party’s formation, the unexpected blow came when KCR’s family stayed away from the first parliamentary elections. Losing representation in the Lok Sabha was another significant setback. For almost a decade, from 2014 to November 2023, Telangana…
The saying “ships turn into carts, and carts turn into ships” aptly fits the current political scenario of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS). The unexpected blow to BRS came when KCR’s family stayed away from the first parliamentary elections after the party’s formation. Losing representation in the Lok Sabha was another significant setback. For nearly a decade, from 2014 to November 2023, BRS steered the wheel as the ruling party in Telangana. However, the recent assembly elections brought bitter results for the BRS. After their defeat in the assembly elections, the departure of elected MLAs further weakened the party. Now, adding insult to injury, BRS failed to open its account in the Lok Sabha elections, an unforeseen development. This is the first time since its formation that BRS has no representation in the Lok Sabha.
In these parliamentary elections, for the first time, no member of KCR’s family contested for the Lok Sabha. In the 2004 elections following the party’s formation, KCR won as an MP from Karimnagar and served as a minister in the UPA government. He won the Karimnagar parliamentary by-elections in 2006 and 2008 and was elected as an MP from Mahbubnagar in 2009. BRS achieved a resounding victory in the 2014 assembly elections, leading to KCR becoming the Chief Minister. His daughter, Kavitha, was elected as an MP from Nizamabad in those elections but lost to BJP candidate Dharmapuri Arvind in 2019 and did not contest this time. Similarly, no member of KCR’s family contested in this parliamentary election.
In reality, many BRS sitting MPs were reluctant to contest in the parliamentary elections. Several members defected to other parties after the tickets were announced. Despite KCR, KTR, and other key BRS leaders extensively campaigning and urging people to compare the five-month Congress rule with their ten-year governance before voting, the public did not respond favorably. BRS candidates managed to secure second place only in Mahabubabad and Khammam. In the Hyderabad Lok Sabha constituency, BRS finished in fourth place, while in the remaining 14 constituencies, it stood in third place.
In this parliamentary election, BRS secured only 16.69% of the total votes polled in Telangana. Although this number seems significant, it did not translate into seats. In terms of vote count, this equates to just 36,19,626 votes.
