BRS to focus on strengthening itself; cadre to be medium to reconnect with people

Hyderabad: The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), which is on a self-introspection mode, has identified multiple factors that led to its defeat in the recent Assembly polls, with the party leadership deciding to fill whatever gaps there were and to work with more vigour to regain its upper hand in the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls. For this, focus will be on strengthening the BRS from the grassroot level with the party cadre to be the medium to reconnect with the people.

At the end of the first spell of preparatory meetings for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections being held at Telangana Bhavan on Friday, BRS working president KT Rama Rao outlined the key factors behind the decline in the party’s performance. He pointed out that while the recent election results were not an outright rejection of the BRS, there were disappointing outcomes in certain districts. Out of 119 seats, the BRS won 39 seats while in 14 seats, they lost by slim margins.

“Had those seats been secured, the story would have been different,” he said.

Taking responsibility for the decline in the party’s performance, Rama Rao identified organisational shortcomings, stating that the party’s focus on administration overshadowed its attention to internal restructuring to strengthen itself. He admitted not giving proper recognition to newly-joined members from other parties and ignoring the well-being of party workers to some extent.

Finding fault with recent remarks by some BRS leaders that the people of Telangana made a mistake by electing the Congress, he asked them to stop blaming the electorate and start introspecting over their shortcomings. He reminded them that the same electorate voted for the BRS for two consecutive terms earlier. He also informed that the reports of each preparatory meeting was being submitted to the party president K Chandrashekhar Rao daily.

Rama Rao also expressed concern about the broken link between voters and party workers due to government schemes reaching beneficiaries directly. He felt that despite issuing over six lakh new ration cards and around 15,000 new Aasara pensions in every constituency, the party failed to publicise it effectively.

“As a result, issues pertaining to only those who did not get them gained more traction and led to our electoral defeat. Similar situations prevailed with regard to Dalit Bandhu, contributing to negative perceptions among other sections of the society,” he observed.

The BRS working president criticised the Congress for making impractical promises during the election campaign and attempting to blame the previous BRS government. He asked the party cadre to expose the failures of the Congress until all its 420 electoral promises were fulfilled. He asserted that the Congress was deliberately provoking the BRS through the Governor’s speech, white papers and other activities, though the BRS was willing to wait for the former to settle down.

“We never demanded that the Congress government implement its promises on Day One. But they are pushing us into a position, where we cannot sit silently when these allegations get outrageous and we were forced to give a fitting reply inside the Assembly as well as outside,” he added.

Pointing out the growing discontent among people over power cuts, delay in disbursement of Rythu Bandhu financial assistance, shortage of RTC buses for women and lack of livelihood for auto-rickshaw drivers in the State, Rama Rao demanded that the State government address these issues immediately.

Terming the Assembly defeat as a ‘speed breaker’, Rama Rao said the Car (BRS election symbol) had gone for overhauling and repairs, but not to the vehicle shed permanently. He asked the BRS workers and leaders to focus on the upcoming Lok Sabha elections and subsequent local body elections, expressing confidence in securing victories.