HYDERABAD: With the BRS turning a weak contender after its defeat in the Assembly elections and the people deciding to choose between the two national parties — the BJP and Congress — most of the pink party votes shifted to the saffron party in this Lok Sabha elections while in some segments, the grand old party too benefited from this trend.
As a result, the BRS did not get the expected results.
For example, former finance minister T Harish Rao was elected from Siddipet by a margin of over 80,000 votes in the Assembly elections. But after just six months, the BRS candidate got only around 3,000 votes majority in Siddipet, which falls under the Medak Lok Sabha segment.
Though BRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao and Harish Rao campaigned vigorously for the BRS candidate P Venkatram Reddy, he secured only 65,501 votes while the BJP’s M Raghunandan Rao received 62,823 votes. It means that the BRS lost a huge chunk of votes in Siddipet, a fortress of BRS since its inception.
Venkatram Reddy even assured the voters that he would set up a trust with Rs 100 crore funds to help the needy in the segment. All these efforts and promises went in vain as the solid vote bank of the BRS shifted to the BJP.
In Sircilla, which is represented in the Assembly by BRS working president KT Rama Rao, the BJP secured a huge number of votes and its candidate Bandi Sanjay retained the Karimnagar LS seat.
However, the BRS maintained its supremacy in Gajwel, represented by its chief K Chandrasekhar Rao. In this segment, which falls under the Medak LS constituency, the BRS candidate secured a 30,000-vote majority in this elections.
In Sangareddy Assembly segment, the BRS candidate won with around 10,000 votes majority in 2023. But in the LS polls, the BRS got only 23,000 votes while the BJP, which got 20,000 votes in the state polls, improved its vote share to over 63,000 votes. The Congress votes decreased by 6,000 in Sangareddy.
“All my friends in Siddipet who used to support the BRS voted for the BJP this time. The digital media played a vital role this time. The BJP candidate was visible on the ground. It was also one of the reasons,” a BRS activist said. There is also another talk in political
circles that some BRS leaders wanted the pink party workers to vote for the BJP candidates in segments where the BRS is weak to crush their main rival Congress.
Some BRS leaders believed in the proverb “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” and their reported strategy to support the enemy’s enemy allegedly helped the BJP to perform well in the Lok Sabha polls in Telangana.
CPI state secretary and MLA Kunamneni Sambasiva Rao commented that with an ill motive to defeat the Congress, the BRS diverted its vote bank to the BJP.
