10 reasons why KCR moved fast in announcing BRS candidates for 2023 Assembly elections

HYDERABAD: Apart from scoring over his rivals by deriving the first-mover advantage, as is his wont, Telangana Chief Minister and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) supremo K Chandrashekar Rao has more than one reason to release the trigger to kill two birds at one shot. In fact, KCR has stirred the proverbial hornet’s nest within the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by opening his cards well in advance.

Here are the 10 reasons why KCR has announced the list of his party nominees almost 100 days before the elections – assuming the elections would be held towards the end of November or early December.

1. KCR’s unique advantage is that he is the final authority in deciding the party tickets within the BRS. He, however, depended on multiple surveys conducted vigorously within the State in almost every Assembly constituency and also completed the consultation process before going for the announcements. The decision to announce the list is definitely not a hurried one done on the spur of the moment. He very well wanted to expose the fact that the Congress and the BJP cannot finalise the lists without vetting and clearance by their respective national leaderships. In fact, the Congress has just begun eliciting applications from the aspiring contestants.

2. If the candidacies are announced so well in advance, the contestants of the Congress and the BJP will have to shell out huge sums to maintain the cadres and also to “satisfy” (financially) every tom, dick and harry whoever commands a certain number of votes in those constituencies. Several caste groups would keep the contestants on tenterhooks and the manifestos of the parties have yet to be prepared, even though ‘hollow promises’ are being blurted out by their leaders. Any promise made either by the Congress or the BJP would be juxtaposed with the policies and programmes being implemented by the parties in the States which are being ruled by them. This exposes them thoroughly, as KCR would constantly taunt them alleging that the schemes would differ from State to State for those parties and that they lack uniformity across the country. The nominees of the BRS however can brag about the deliverance by the State Government and beat the opponent hollow.

3. The Congress is out of power at the State and also at the Centre for a decade now. This naturally emptied their coffers as funds were expended to keep their proverbial pot boiling all these years. Even the politically popular leaders who are serious contenders are reeling under paucity of funds. This is not the case with the BRS contestants. With the resounding victory in Karnataka, the Telangana Congress leaders are looking at the leaders in Bengaluru to “donate generously” to fund their elections in Telangana. The BJP is, however, clueless as it is still to find its way from gasbags to moneybags.

4. The early announcement by the BRS naturally triggered a scramble in the two main opposition parties in Telangana. The contestants have begun to work on how to pull strings to get the attestation of their respective party bosses in Delhi. Though it’s not common to the BJP, surely the Congress will face backlash in many constituencies once the lists are announced, for dissidence and infighting are inherent problems plaguing the Congress. The dissensions kept on surfacing more often than not over the last one year ever since Revanth Reddy took over the reins of the Telangana unit of the party, thus exposing the weakness of the party.

5. When it comes to the BJP, which created a buzz like a flowerpot initially, has already lost its fizz as soon as the Karnataka results were out. Also, enthroning Bandi Sanjay or G Kishan Reddy as the Chief Minister of Telangana would never be the ultimate goal of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. The early selection of candidates by KCR has already impaled the BJP’s bankruptcy of candidates in many constituencies in Telangana.

6. The BRS nominees have already embarked on a campaign trail. Thus, the BRS has usurped any possible narrative by the Congress and the BJP to create a buzz against the Telangana Government. Corruption and dynasty politics are two untouchable subjects the Congress would never want to touch upon for very obvious reasons. The BJP’s sloganeering on these things would only become a boring rhetoric which wouldn’t be bought by the people. By announcing nominees early, KCR, by design, shattered the election agenda of his opponents.

7. On his party side, the time left is a golden opportunity for KCR to set his house in order. Wherever there is a backlash, he can easily address it. He will have umpteen opportunities to placate the frayed tempers of those who would be of some material use for the party by offering them an olive branch in some other form that would keep them in good humour. And, it’s not as if KCR doesn’t know that some of those he had chosen for being fielded on behalf of the party are weakly disposed. They would be given additional help and guidance to muster strength and address the challenges confronting them locally.

8. At an umbrella level, the party leadership, poll managers and strategists will have sufficient time to deal with ticklish issues and smoothen the bumpy road at a micro level in those constituencies. If there are any ramblings within the party, the leadership can blunt the sharp edges by making the nonconformists fall in line. Even if they play truant, their early riddance would prepare the ground for a smooth take off for the BRS contestants.

9. By the time the election notification is announced, the BRS would have completed two rounds of campaign. The third leg could commence after the selection of candidates by the two national parties and the nomination process ends, by which time the BRS candidates would have identified and addressed thorny issues and put them on the backburner.

10. By the early announcement of contestants on its behalf, the BRS wants the people to watch the political soap operas of the Congress and the BJP and derive vicarious pleasure witnessing it from the stands of political arena.

By announcing deliverance of promised and unpromised programmes and a reinforced assurance that he would continue to deliver, KCR for now gained an upper hand over his political opponents.