KCR may release list of candidates for Assembly polls in a week

HYDERABAD: Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) chief and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) is likely to announce the names of a maximum number of candidates within a week to 10 days.

It is speculated that the BRS would go it alone in the upcoming elections and there would be no alliance with any other political party. The BRS chief is expected to renominate 80 to 90 of the sitting MLAs based on the grassroots surveys. Party seniors believe that the early announcement of the list of candidates would nip the rebel trouble in the bud.

Going by the Election Commission of India’s schedule, the voter list would be published on October 4, 2023, making it impossible to hold the elections in the same month. As the two main opposition parties in the state, the Congress and the BJP, are already in an election mode, the BRS strategy of nominating candidates would only amplify the campaign by all parties.

The change of candidates would be based on repeated internal surveys on each one’s winnability, considering their performance over the last more than four years.

Even if more number of candidates have to be changed too, the strategy to announce the candidates early would work for the advantage of the BRS. For, some of them would join the rival camps paving the opportunity for the BRS to bolster the prospects of the new candidates pitted against the rivals.

The grassroots-level permutations and combinations too can be quickly worked out and right fits on behalf of the BRS could be made battle-ready.

After the Karnataka election, the Congress has found itself in a better position than the BJP in Telangana. The BJP, which went ballistic against KCR and the BRS, has apparently mellowed down its vilification campaign and a trenchant attack on the ruling party. KCR, on his side, too deflected from targeting the BJP and has chosen to go hammer and tongs against the looming genie of a rival in the form of the Congress.

Though the Congress is boisterously admitting all and sundry into the party only to flaunt its ‘burgeoning strength’, it won’t be an easy task for the party to select candidates for contesting in different constituencies. The reason is simple: given its internal dissensions, the party leadership is sure to face an uphill task in sponsoring one candidate against many contenders within.

However, the BJP would not have this problem as it never had candidates to contest from all the 119 assembly seats in Telangana.

Releasing the list of candidates early will be a master stroke by KCR, especially against the Congress, as he could set the game of throne within the Congress in every Assembly seat, proving the maxim of one man's meat is another man's poison.