KCR plans MPs-MLAs jugglery for polls

Hyderabad: 'Ministers as MPs' and 'MPs as MLAs' will be the strategy of BRS president and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao for the December 2023 Assembly elections as well as the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

The party leadership is said to have given signals to a few ministers to prepare for the Lok Sabha elections in April 2024 and to a few MPs to prepare for the Assembly elections in December this year. Ministers Malla Reddy, Talasani Srinivas Yadav, G. Jagadish Reddy, and Legislative Council Chairman Gutha Sukender Reddy, among others, are expected to be asked to contest as MPs.  Clarity on the contestants is expected to emerge following the BRS foundation day on April 27. Party sources said that the CM has decided to field ministers for at least nine Lok Sabha seats in 2024. He is reportedly considering fielding ministers for Malkajgiri, Secunderabad, Nalgonda, Mahabubnagar, Karimnagar, Warangal, Nargarkurnool, Mahabubabad and Chevella. Along with ministers, MLAs and MLCs holding top posts in the Assembly and Council are also being considered for the Lok Sabha elections.

The BRS never won the Secunderabad and Nalgonda Lok Sabha seats, despite a clean sweep in the Assembly constituencies that fall under the jurisdiction of these Lok Sabha constituencies. Medak MP Kotha Prabhakar Reddy, who won twice in 2014 and 2019, has been given the responsibility of the Dubbak Assembly constituency, currently held by BJP MLA M.Raghunandan Rao. Prabhakar Reddy stepped up political activities in Dubbak giving clear indications that he would contest the Assembly poll from Dubbak this year.

Since the TRS has been transformed into the BRS with the goal of playing a prominent role in national politics after the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the CM is placing more emphasis on Lok Sabha elections this time.

The CM has set "Mission-16" target with an aim to win all the 16 Lok Sabha seats in 2024 leaving the remaining lone Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat to its friendly party AIMIM. Rao is of the firm opinion that the party has to make a clean sweep in the Lok Sabha polls in Telangana  if it has to show its impact in national politics after the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Even though the CM set Mission-16 target for 2019 Lok Sabha elections too, the party suffered a setback as it managed to win only 9 seats.

The BJP has put up a stunning performance by bagging four Lok Sabha seats in 2019 and the Congress secured three. The BRS (then TRS) had won 11 seats in 2014 Lok Sabha polls. It was confined to single digits in 2019 Lok Sabha polls that were held within a gap of four months after the Assembly polls were held in December 2018, in which the TRS won with a bumper majority by securing 88 Assembly seats out of total 119. The Lok Sabha results came as a big shock for BRS given that the BRS significantly improved its tally in the Assembly polls from 63 in 2014 to 88 in 2018 but its tally in the Lok Sabha went down from 11 in 2014 to 9 in 2019.  In a few Assembly constituencies, the party is facing infighting between ministers, the MLAs and MPs and the party leadership is of the view that this could be checked if candidates are changed for the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections.