HYDERABAD: Ahead of the local body elections, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) is facing challenges in the 10 Assembly constituencies where its MLAs have defected to the Congress.
The principal opposition party has yet to appoint in-charges for these constituencies. As no decision has been taken, the cadre are in a state of confusion as they begin preparing for the local body polls.
The 10 constituencies are: Khairatabad, Rajendranagar, Serilingampally, Bhanswada, Jagtial, Bhadrachalam, Chevella, Gadwal, Station Ghanpur and Patancheru.
The party, which ruled the state for 10 years, is now facing issues across the state due to lack of coordination between the state leadership and the party functionaries at the constituency level. The cadre are baffled over the party leaving the 10 constituencies forsaken without nominating any leader as in-charge for each of them.
As things stand, BRS working president KT Rama Rao has given a call to the cadre and leaders to get ready for the local body elections.
Congress, BJP waiting to exploit situation
At the ground level, former MLAs and former ministers or key leaders are not even bothering to visit the constituencies. As the BRS is unable to free itself from the tight coils of indecision, the Congress and BJP seem to be getting ready to exploit the situation in their favour.
According to sources, the MLAs and MPs from the ruling Congress and BJP are approaching the second-rung leaders in the constituencies and trying to woo them to join their parties.
One former MLA told TNIE that in his constituency, a few of the former ZPTCs and former MPPs are waiting for a party call to know how to go about the forthcoming elections, but so far, he has not received any instructions.
The delay in holding meetings with the cadre is leading to further disillusionment. They are already down in spirit after back-to-back electoral reverses in the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections. They are expecting the party to hold a preparatory meeting without any further delay.
He also said that the ruling Congress and BJP have already got cracking, finalising tickets for aspirants, but there was no activity in the BRS so far.
Party sources said that, in normal practice, in any constituency where the MLA defects to another party, an in-charge is immediately appointed to prevent the drain of the party workers who were the supporters of the defected MLA to the other party. The party cadre hope that the leadership gets around to the immediate task of motivating and retaining the cadre.
If the party abandons the constituencies, there might be irreversible damage to the party.
