Beleaguered Bharatiya Rastra Samithi is likely to face an existential crisis in Telangana if the mass exodus of its MLAs doesn’t stop in the coming days. Ever since the party suffered a huge setback in last year’s assembly elections, many of its lower rung leaders started defecting into the Indian National Congress and the Bharatiya Janata party.
But after it faced a humiliating blow in the recent Loksabha elections with zero seats, the defection of prominent leaders from BRS started with as many as 10 MLAs and 6 MLCs deserting the party and finding shelter under INC. While the initial defections were from rural constituencies, the recent trend suggests that the party is going to lose relevance in the greater Hyderabad limits where it performed exceedingly well in the assembly elections by sweeping all seats.
BRS president and former Chief Minister KCR is searching for answers to the current stalemate as he is unable to convince his partymen from leaving the party during crisis. He turned out to be a mute spectator who is in a helpless state to stop these growing defections which downsized the MLAs count from 39 to 28. There are reports that some more MLAs will soon jump ship into the Congress in the coming days.
Meanwhile, there are reports that four Rajyasabha MPs representing BRS are in talks with the BJP and they are likely to leave the party shortly. While the party’s poor electoral performance seems to be the primary reason for the current dire straits, KCR’s arrogance and poor relations with his leaders are also said to be the other reasons for failing to keep the flock together.
When he was in power for nearly 10 years, KCR remained inaccessible to his partymen and ignored his MLAs and MPs. He didn’t maintain cordial relations with his cadre and hard working leaders. So, he has got no grip on his MLAs which is why the en masse defections are not likely to stop as per political analysts.
The BRS needs a miraculous turn around from the current quagmire to make a strong electoral comeback in the next elections. Firstly, KCR should find a solution and stop the remaining MLAs from leaving the party.