BRS gambit to keep major alliances at bay fails to pay off at the hustings

Hyderabad: Is not aligning with any of the alliances like NDA or INDI proved costly for BRS? The party leadership, particularly president K Chandrashekar Rao feels that people of the country voted between the two alliance partners, leaving out those who were not with any of the two.

According to sources, KCR said this during his meeting with some senior leaders who met him after the Lok Sabha results. He felt that those who were not part of any alliance got a big setback in the elections. The BRS had taken a stand of staying away from the BJP or the Congress-led alliances; KCR had predicted that the regional parties would play a key role and giving a big number of seats to his party will come in handy for bargaining at the Centre.

“People voted either the parties which were with NDA or those which were against NDA; this is not restricted to our State lone. The YSRCP is also routed in their State,” said KCR to some MLAs who met him at his farmhouse after the results. The party drew a blank for the first time after the formation of BRS in the last 24 years. There is no representation of BRS in the Lok Sabha now.

Going by the results, KCR’s comments appeared correct as parties like Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in Odisha, All-India Anna DravidaMunnetraKhazagam (AIADMK), YSR Congress Party faced a jolt in the Lok Sabha polls. However, the parties which were part of either NDA or INDI alliances had good results. The Telugu Desam and Jana Sena in Andhra Pradesh benefited by having an alliance with the BJP-led NDA resulting in a big benefit of 21 seats out of 25. Similarly, in Tamil Nadu, the MK Stalin-led DravidaMunnetraKhazagam (DMK), Shiv Sena (UddhavBalasahebThackray) in Maharashtra, Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party (SP) in UP have benefited hugely in the election.

A senior BRS leader said the party should have aligned with one of the alliance instead of going alone. The results would have been different if the party had some sort of alliance. He said the party will have to take a decision on alliance in the coming election, adding that this was going to be a difficult decision to make.