HYDERABAD: Among the three main parties in the state, it is the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leadership that is the most worried about the performance of the party candidates in the Lok Sabha elections.
An unfavourable result, which most exit polls have predicted, could mean disaster for the BRS, which till December 2023, was in power in the state. The defeat in the recent Assembly elections led to its legislators, some sitting and some former, deserting the ship and joining its rivals.
The party leadership fears that a loss in the Lok Sabha election can open the floodgates, even as it puts on a brave face in public.
Various psephology agencies predict a rout of the party by projecting just one, or some even zero, seat in the state.
This is despite the best efforts of its leaders. In a bid to regain public support, BRS supremo K. Chandrasekhar Rao and party working president KT Rama Rao campaigned extensively across the state, with KCR launching a bus yatra and interacting with voters. However, the exit polls say that this has not been enough.
If the exit poll predictions hold true, the BRS will drop to third place in Telangana’s political arena and the BJP will emerge as a viable alternative.
If this happens, the BRS faces the risk of further marginalisation.
The possibility of defections looms large, with BRS MLAs and grassroots leaders shifting allegiance to the Congress or the BJP. This could pose an existential crisis for the party.