KCR, team way ahead in campaigning, Congress trying to catch up, BJP lagging behind

HYDERABAD: Reaping the benefits of the early declaration of candidates for the ensuing Assembly elections, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) Chief K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) is spearheading the party’s campaign with KT Rama Rao and T Harish Rao in tow.

In all, he will cover 82 public meetings covering the same number of constituencies till November 23. The schedule of his next phase of public meetings starting from November 24 is yet to be declared.

So far KCR addressed 31 public meetings covering 31 Assembly constituencies in his whirlwind but extremely successful public meetings till October 5. On Monday alone the BRS Chief will address four meetings in Devarakadra, Gadwal, Makthal, and Narayanpet taking the total to 35. He will be addressing Chennur, Manthani, and Peddapalli on November 7 and Sirpur, Asifabad, and Bellampalli on November 8.

After filing nominations in Gajwel and Kamareddy on November 9 he will address public meetings in both places. He will embark on his second round of campaign on October 13. He will address marathon public meetings till November 23.

He will address 39 public meetings starting from Aswaraopet, Burgampad, Narsampet, Palakurthy, Haliya, Ibrahimpatnam, Bodhan, Nizamabad urban, Yellareddy, Medak, Adilabad, Boath, Nizamabad rural, Narsapur, Karimnagar, Choppadandi, Huzurabad, Parkal, Cherial, Alampur, Kollapur, Nagarkurnool, Kalwakurthy, Manakondur, Station Ghanpur, Nakrekal, Nalgonda, Madhira, Wyra, Dornakal, Suryapet, Tandur, Kodangal, Mahbubnagar, Parigi, Maheswaram, Vikarabad, Zaheerabad and Patancheru.

The TRS campaign apparently has a three-pronged approach, while the party chief undertakes a ‘carpet bombing ’ strategy, the BRS working President KT Rama Rao covers a wide variety of social media and mainstream media in his campaign blitzkrieg. Finance and Health Minister T Harish covers and consolidates the grassroots-level voters in his own inimitable style. Both KTR and Harish already addressed over 100 public meetings.

KTR the BRS mascot

KTR has completed one round of one-on-one interviews with the national and regional media. His interviews with celebrities such as former IAS officer Jayaprakash Narayan were an instant success. His interview with social media influencer Gangavva over cooking chicken curry amid green agriculture fields registered a whopping 3.5 million page views. The BRS mascot is also riding the airwaves through his talk shows on FM radio.

The opposition however was in a quandary due to the incessant delay in finalising seat adjustments. Their lists came in phases punctuated by a lot of unrest among the disgruntled party leaders. While senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi addressed four public meetings, AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge addressed one, and Priyanka Gandhi addressed one. All these Congress leaders along with TPCC president A Revanth Reddy covered just six constituencies out of a long list of 119 constituencies in the State of Telangana.

Late Starters

To jump-start the Congress campaign trail, Revanth Reddy on Monday has come up with a schedule planning to cover Gadwal, Makthal, Khanapur, Adilabad, Zaheerabad, Palakurthy, Secunderabad, Sanath Nagar, Kamareddy, Bellampally, Ramagundam and Dharmapuri starting from Tuesday till November 11.

The BJP which was silent for a long time will once again ignite its campaign with none other than the Prime Minister getting down to the brass tacks on Tuesday.

He will address a public meeting at LB Stadium in Hyderabad. Narendra Modi already addressed two public meetings after the declaration of the election schedule. Home Minister Amit Shah addressed two, Defence Minister Rajanath Singh addressed one, and Smriti Irani addressed one.

BJP’s campaign while started on top gear, got derailed midway with the delay in the declaration of the second and third lists. It waited too long to complete the confabulations with the Jana Sena Party. The BJP wanted to test the waters in Telangana before entering into a seat adjustment exercise with the Pawan Kalyan’s party in Andhra Pradesh.