KCR steps into Maha political arena, looks for gateway to national pitch

PUNE/AURANGABAD: Less than a year after K Chandrashekar Rao decided to spread his party’s wings, the baby steps are being taken in Maharashtra. NCP’s Ghanshyam Shelar from Ahmednagar joined the BRS, while more leaders have met Rao and are likely to switch parties.
The Telangana chief minister has held three rallies in the past two months, all in the drought-prone districts of Maharashtra close to his state.He has announced a campaign to reach 45,000 villages and enrol 50 lakh members for the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) in Maharashtra. The crowd that Rao’s rallies have drawn in rural Maharashtra have put political leaders here on alert. Queried on the BRS making inroads into Maharashtra, NCP chief Sharad Pawar said the Congress-NCP alliance had faced reverses in the 2019 polls due to the presence of Prakash Ambedkar’s Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA).
“Even though all parties have the right to expand their base in any state, it remains to be seen if the BRS is a B team (of the BJP).” The party has set up an office in Nagpur and is looking for space in Mumbai, Pune and Aurangabad. Many have questioned the timing of BRS’s foray into Maharashtra, especially when the assembly elections to Telangana state assembly are just six months away. There are also questions why the BRS chief picked Maharashtra over other southern states. Political observers pointed out a series of events that could explain the move. The political situation in Maharashtra has been volatile ever since Eknath Shinde led a rebellion in Shiv Sena and joined hands with BJP to form the Maharashtra government. An incumbent NCP MP said in 2019 itself that BJP had realised that they cannot win if Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena (MVA) contest elections as alliance partners in Maharashtra.
The party has been trying hard to weaken the vote bank of the MVA. Moreover, political observers pointed out that KCR’s daughter K Kavitha was questioned by Enforcement Directorate (ED) just before the party began making foray into Maharashtra. Feroz Patel, one of the key members of BRS in Maharashtra, said his party’s entry in the state has nothing to do with the ED questioning. “About 45% voters in Maharashtra are directly or indirectly connected to farming. Our party does not play caste politics and focusses only on development of all sections of society. Our party has the best welfare schemes for SC, ST and OBCs in the country,” Patel said, adding that his party is considering electing a Maharashtrian to the Rajya Sabha. Political analyst Jaidev Dole said there is much more than what meets the eye.
“After AIMIM, BRS is the second party from Telangana to enter Maharashtra. AIMIM is widely criticised for denting the vote bank of secular parties. The same is likely to happen with BRS. Till the advent of BRS, the MVA saw a direct fight with BJP and Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena,” he said. Maharashtra cabinet minister for cooperation and BJP MLA Atul Save argued that he had to fight against an AIMIM candidate and won by a narrow margin. “Why will we bring BRS to Maharashtra? It is just that BRS wants to win some seats in the districts bordering his state. We do not think they will get any success there.” Under KCR, his party bagged a second term in the 2018 assembly elections winning 88 of the 119 Telangana assembly seats. “We are not the B-team of any other party. We are here to make a farmer the chief minister of Maharashtra. Our leader KCR has told us to start working on the ground that goes beyond elections,” said Manik Kadam, state chief of BRS’s Kisan Cell. “Farmers’ suicides were a problem in Telangana too but the situation has changed now.
The KCR government has implemented 430 schemes for the benefit of farmers and the downtrodden. The Telangana government offers free electricity and 24-hour water supply to farmers. The governments here, whether BJP-led or Congress-NCP or MVA, have failed the farmers,” Kadam said. He claimed that they were confident of fielding candidates in all 288 assembly seats in Maharashtra. Farmers’ leader Jayajirao Suryawanshi said that pro-farmer policies of BRS are the best in the country and these policies are going to be the game changer in the coming days. AIMIM MP from Aurangabad, Imtiaz Jaleel, supported BRS’s decision to enter Maharashtra. “Every political par ty has the right to expand its base. If BRS thinks they have space to expand in Maharashtra, they are most welcome. People will have more choices.” He too countered the B-team allegation saying that those unable to keep their house in order are blaming others.KCR has held two rallies on the home turf of former chief minister Ashok Chavan, who held the Congress fort in Nanded even in the 2014 election.
“At the national level, there is a move to bring anti-BJP parties together. It is strange that BRS is entering Maharashtra. It should clarify its political stand in Maharashtra. An opposition minus Congress can never materialise practically, at least in Lok Sabha. This approach raises questions. Doubts are being raised whether they want to fight the BJP or want to indirectly help BJP like AIMIM. In Maharashtra, MVA has strong possibility of winning the elections and if BRS wants to be a part of the alliance, a decision may be taken at the national level,” Chavan told TOI.
Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University’s political science HoD and professor Shakir Shuja said that last month BRS contested the agriculture produce market committee elections in Nanded. Of the 18 seats, MVA won 15 and BJP bagged 3 while BRS drew a blank. “At the moment, BRS campaign is based on marketing and showcasing the Telangana model of governance. I don’t see them directly making an impact on a large scale. Our voters do not directly connect themselves to development and their priorities are totally different,” he said.