After the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) Member Parliament Borlakunta Venkatesh Netha from Telangana’s Peddapalli quit the party recently and joined the Congress party, the BRS leaders say that the recent assembly loss has demotivated the party cadre as well as its leadership.
The perception emerging within the BRS cadre is that the two national parties, Congress and BJP, are trying to bring down the regional party so that the state’s electorate either falls on BJP side or Congress side and there is no third party which would play as a spoilsport or disruptor. A person privy to the developments said, “For Revanth Reddy the battle with BRS is personal. He wants to demolish the BRS and for that he is personally getting in touch with the legislators of the opposition party and trying to court them into switching the sides. BRS is also focused to keep its flock together as they are beware of the imminent breakdown. They are in a constant worry that their legislators may defect. The BRS leadership is seen to have acknowledged that their party is under threat.”
State secretary BRS P. Bhoopathi Reddy said to The Sunday Guardian, “Is it that the Congress will propose to knockdown the BRS and the party’s downfall will happen just like that. It is for people to decide. If people think that BRS has helped them in their development, they will hold the party up. Who are these people to break down the party? Besides, BRS has done a lot of work for the people of the state. What has Congress done. Congress people are anti- nationals. Moreover, nothing like the breakdown of party will happen. It is just the wrong time for the party, nothing else.”
There is a section of leaders suggesting that the BJP and Congress could be holding backroom talks as to how to minimise the influence of BRS and make it a state where only two national parties would hold significance. A political analyst said, “If there is anything like this happening, they must have taken in view the state of Karnataka where BJP took space of the Janata Dal Secular and eventually emerged as a dominant party. The same could happen with the BRS as well if it doesn’t prove to be strong opposition and does not hit the ground from time to time to take people in confidence.”
A BRS leader said, “There are some surveys suggesting around 3 Lok Sabha seats for us in the upcoming general election which are very less. Although we may not have conducted any complete survey until now or the reports may not have been in final form but the picture does look like the surveys have suggested (that is that the BRS may not be able to hold onto their current seat share). Now we may get the benefit only when there is a triangular contest in the state, and Congress and BJP contest tooth and nail so that we can emerge, as our traditional vote bank would help us pocket those seats.”