NIZAMABAD: Who will be the BRS in-charge of the Kamareddy Assembly constituency, which the BJP won? The Kamareddy Assembly constituency shot to prominence after local BJP leader K Venkataramana Reddy defeated two towering personalities — former Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and incumbent Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy — in the recent Assembly elections.
When KCR wanted to contest from Kamareddy, the then-sitting MLA Gampa Govardhan made way for the former. BC leader, Govardhan won the seat five times.
The BRS is now wondering whether it would be prudent to appoint Govardhan as in-charge for the constituency or bring in a minority leader, MK Mujeebuddin, who is the district BRS president, to rally Muslims, who are in significant numbers in Kamareddy, behind the party banner.
The local leaders believe that the BRS lost Kamareddy because of a lack of strong local leadership, festering organizational problems, the absence of charismatic leaders, and the overconfidence of the top leadership.
Ahead of the Assembly elections, to make victory easy for KCR from Kamareddy, BRS working president KT Rama Rao, Govardhan, and KCR’s political affairs adviser Sheri Subhash Reddy acted as in-charge, and yet the party lost the election to the BJP. All three leaders failed to ensure coordination among the party ranks at the field level.
It is reported that the BRS is mulling strengthening the party institutionally and identifying a suitable leader for the purpose. In such a scenario, who should be appointed as the in-charge is a million-dollar question.
As veteran leader Mohammed Ali Shabbir may return to Kamareddy after his defeat in Nizamabad Urban, the BRS is also considering Mujeebuddin to match the Congress’ minority leader.
It, however, remains to be seen to what extent the cadres would accept a minority leader as in-charge of the constituency.
As the BJP is sticking with its ‘BC Chief Minister’ slogan, the BRS workers believe that Govardhan is a safer bet as he is from a Backward class community (Perika). But the argument that minorities might look at the Congress if Govardhan is brought in in-charge is equally compelling.
Senior leaders of the party contend that it is possible to build a strong base for the party only by achieving unity among all the leaders in the constituency. The BRS will have to act swiftly as Revanth does not want the pink party to grow green shoots in the constituency. He has already decided to appoint a special officer to speed up development works in the constituency.