Leaders’ exit: Watershed moment for BRS to get into reboot mode, rebuild from scratch

HYDERABAD: Certain MLAs belonging to the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) are playing a peek-a-boo with the ruling Congress, more so Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy.

Several legislators called on the Chief Minister ever since he’s elected to the coveted office.

The first batch of MLAs who went included four from Medak district — Kotha Prabhakar Reddy, Sunitha Lakshma Reddy, Gudem Mahipal Reddy and K Manik Rao.

They described the meeting as a courtesy call and asserted that their meeting was just as any meeting between MLAs and the Chief Minister and nothing more needed to be read between the lines.

They pledged their loyalty to the BRS.

Thereafter, many MLAs began meeting the Chief Minister and dubbing it as a courtesy call.

Bahdrachalam MLA Tellam Venkata Rao was one among the so many MLAs from BRS who had met Revanth Reddy and said it was very normal for an MLA to meet the Chief Minister. He later shared the dais with the CM at Indiramma Indlu launch programme.

C Malla Reddy, former minister and Medchal MLA, along with his son-in-law met Revanth Reddy and repeated the template. He had even met Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivkumar and said it’s for business purposes. Before that the State Government had toppled a few buildings in a college of his son-in-law and MLA Marri Rajasekhar Reddy.

There is a beeline of MLAs making the CM’s residence and office a beehive of activity with “courtesy calls.”

Danam Nagender became the first MLA from the City to have formally joined the Congress.

MPs Venkatesh Netha, Pasunuru Dayakar and G Ranjith Reddy too joined the Congress.

They are likely to be renominated on behalf of the Congress to seek a reelection from their respective seats with a different scarf on them.

Is this a draining out moment for the BRS? Or is it a watershed moment?

Someone who closely observes politics, power is a cycle and it comes and goes by turns. Turncoats would always try to make the best of the both worlds.

KCR who had been rolling the roost for a decade is now staying calm and observing the goings on.

Particularly, there is no hard feeling or animosity among anyone bidding adieu to the BRS either against KCR or working president KTR.

It’s just that their chips are down. After all, Revanth Reddy too is a chip of the same block. He had served in the TRS as an MLC before going adrift to the TDP.

The switching of sides is part of a power game. The BRS must expect some more exits from among those elected. The dust settles down after some time.

But, KCR, typical of a fighter that he is, will surely focus on rebuilding the party brick by brick.

The five-year term out of office would give the BRS an opportunity to build a stronger cadre with a proper organisation structure in place.

As an opposition party, its brief in democracy is anyway to espouse people’s cause and fight for them.

This will be an opportunity for the BRS to endear itself to the masses.

Revanth Reddy is surely taking a vindictive approach towards his predecessor government and would continue to do so. On the other hand, the BJP is taking out the weapons it had stored to gobble up the leaders from the BRS. It’s also working on demoralising KCR by fixing his daughter and MLC in the Delhi Liquor Policy case. It has chiding the timing in such a manner that the BRS leadership would be sandwiched between the poll management for the Lok Sabha elections and fighting the legal battle on behalf of Kavitha.

The essential attention diversion by the BRS leadership towards the case can deflect its strength to the legal issues and wean it away from strategising for the Lok Sabha polls.

If the BJP wants to push KCR to his wit’s end, the Congress is sharing a coworking space with the BJP is accomplishing the same task, albeit, for its own benefit.

For KCR’s party that rose from people’s movement, this is the opportune time to collect itself and put up a fight no matter who stays and who leaves.