HYDERABAD: The BRS, whose candidates won the 2019 General Elections with huge margins ranging from 75,000 to 3.6 lakh votes, appears to be struggling to hold on to its seats five years later.
The party’s struggle has got a lot to do with the fact that it faced a bitter defeat in the 2023 Assembly elections. Subsequently, some MLAs and a few sitting MPs shifted their loyalties to other parties, leaving the second-rung leaders demoralised.
The BRS won nine Lok Sabha seats in 2019, and seven of these seats were won with huge majorities.
In the last election, Kotha Prabhakar Reddy, the BRS candidate from Medak, party president K Chandrasekhar Rao’s native district, won with a majority of 3.15 lakh votes. The BRS polled 5.96 lakh votes, the Congress 2.79 lakh and the BJP 2.01 lakh votes.
Shifting dynamics, and switching parties
In Warangal, BRS nominee Pasunoori Dayakar was elected by a margin of 3.5 lakh votes. Dayakar secured 6.12 lakh votes, the Congress candidate 2.62 lakh and BJP 83,777 votes in 2019. Five years later, the situation has completely changed, with Dayakar joining the Congress and the BRS fielding M Sudheer Kumar. Notably, Sudheer Kumar is not the first choice of the BRS; its initial pick Kadiyam Kavya joined the Congress along with her father Kadiyam Srihari.
In Nagarkurnool LS segment, P Ramulu won by 1.89 lakh votes, polling a total of 4.99 lakh votes. The Congress secured second position with 3.09 lakh votes and the BJP got 1.29 lakh votes in 2019. However, Ramulu has now joined the BJP, which has fielded his son Bharat as its candidate. The BRS has fielded former IPS officer RS Praveen Kumar.
BRS candidate Borlakunta Venkatesh Netha won from the Peddapalli constituency with a majority of 95,000 votes, polling a total of 4.41 lakh votes.
The Congress candidate got 3.4 lakh votes and the BJP 92,000 votes in 2019. However, Venkatesh is now in the Congress.
In Mahbubnagar, Manne Srinivas Reddy won the seat by a margin of 77,829 votes. He secured a total 4.11 lakh votes against the BJP candidate’s 3.33 lakh while the Congress nominee secured 1.93 lakh votes in 2019.
Srinivas Reddy is testing his luck again, but the situation has changed radically with the BRS not winning even a single Assembly segment that forms the Lok Sabha seat. Moreover, Chief Minister A Revanth Redy has been focusing all his attention on Mahbubnagar seat as this is his native district.
Kavitha faces uphill task
In Mahabubabad, Maloth Kavitha was elected by a margin of 1.46 lakh votes. She has been fielded again by the BRS. Kavitha secured 4.62 lakh votes, the Congress 3.15 lakh votes and the BJP only 25,487 votes in the 2019 elections. However, the BRS failed to win a single Assembly segment that comes under the Mahabubabad Lok Sabha seat in 2023.
In Khammam, Nama Nageswara Rao was elected to the Lok Sabha by a margin of 1.68 lakh votes over the Congress candidate. While Nageswara Rao polled 5.67 lakh votes, the grand old party got 3.99 lakh votes and BJP only 20,488. He is back in the fray, but the only BRS MLA from the district has now joined the Congress.
With the Congress mounting an aggressive challenge, the contest for supremacy in the segment has become a focal point of curiosity.
5 years for turnaround
BRS won nine Lok Sabha seats in 2019, and seven of these seats were won with huge majorities
However, the party was defeated in the 2023 Assembly elections, losing to the Congress
Subsequently, some MLAs and sitting MPs left the party, leaving the second-rung leaders demoralised