BRS May Exclude Some MPs from LS Polls

HYDERABAD: The BRS is meetings its leaders from one Lok Sabha constituency every day, to potentially exclude some sitting MPs in the upcoming Parliament elections.

Led by BRS working president K.T. Rama Rao, senior party leaders acknowledged mistakes in candidate selection during the Assembly elections at these meetings that commenced on January 3. Moving forward, the party leadership promised to consider the views of constituency-level leaders in selecting candidates for the Lok Sabha polls.

The party has already declared that for each of the 119 Assembly segments covered in the 17 Lok Sabha constituencies, those who contested the Assembly polls, regardless of the outcome, will be in charge of the party for the Lok Sabha polls. This has reportedly caused discontent among a few of the eight Lok Sabha MPs of the BRS. The party's ninth MP, K. Prabhakar Reddy, contested the Assembly polls from Dubbak, won, and subsequently resigned from his Lok Sabha membership.

Expressing concern, one sitting BRS MP mentioned that the party leadership ignored suggestions from several MPs regarding candidate selection for the Assembly polls. The MP added, "Some of us are now at a disadvantage as those we said should not contest, but did and lost, are not expected to support us anymore. The party will likely use this as an excuse to drop some of us, claiming it is based on feedback from these meetings where mistakes in Assembly elections are being discussed."

Meanwhile, a day after conceding that the failure to properly implement programmes like Dalit Bandhu contributed to its loss in the recent Assembly elections, coupled with errors in candidate selection, the BRS has turned its focus to the new Congress government. Accusing the government of attempting to dismantle Dalit Bandhu, BRS working president Rama Rao alleged, during a meeting with BRS leaders from Nizamabad Lok Sabha constituency, that the government is freezing bank accounts of selected Dalit Bandhu beneficiaries and aiming to undermine other initiatives like Gruha Lakshmi, BC Bandhu, and sheep distribution.