BRS First List Likely Today, Triggers Infight in Multiple Seats

HYDERABAD: The ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), which is going all out to win a third consecutive term, is likely to release its first list of candidates for upcoming Assembly polls on Monday.

BRS president and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao is likely to release the first list at Telangana Bhavan, the party's headquarters, on the occasion of the auspicious Shravana Somavaram. Party sources said that the Chief Minister is likely to retain a majority of the sitting MLAs in the first list.

However, the development triggered an infighting of sorts within several local BRS units, with supporters of incumbent MLAs and ticket aspirants hitting the streets, demanding tickets for their leaders.

In 2018, the BRS (then TRS) led other parties in declaring the candidates first, with Chandrashekar Rao declaring his first list, of 105 candidates, on September 6, 2018, three months before the polling date on December 7.

Chandrashekar Rao reportedly wants to continue the trend by declaring the candidates before Opposition parties do, party sources said.

They said that the Chief Minister strongly believes that declaring candidates much in advance played a key role in the party securing a majority, by a huge margin, in 2018. “This enabled party leadership and candidates to focus on campaigning, reaching out to people by covering every village and mandal in Assembly constituency multiple times,” a source said.

Opposition parties of the Congress, TD, CPI and the TJS, which had formed a ‘Maha Kutami’ to defeat BRS, could not even declare candidates by the deadline due to a tussle over seat sharing. Due to this, Opposition candidates could not focus on campaigning or reach out to people, BRS sources said.

However, the suspense continues over the number of candidates to figure in the first phase. Since Rao is a believer in Vastu and numerology, the number is likely to be a multiple or derivate of six, considered his lucky number. Sources speculated that the list could have names of 42, 51, 69, 78, 96 or 105 candidates, as these numbers add up to six.

Meanwhile, the internal tussle was evident in multiple Assembly constituencies on Sunday, starting with Amberpet, where local BRS leaders staged a dharna demanding that the party leadership not retain incumbent MLA Kaleru Venkatesh. They threatened to defeat Kaleru if the party ignored their demand.

Uppal MLA Bethi Subhash Reddy and his arch-rival, Bonthu Rammohan, joined hands on Sunday after speculations surfaced that the party leadership decided to give the ticket to Bandari Laxma Reddy, who joined from Congress in 2018.

Subhash Reddy and Rammohan rushed to MLC Kalvakuntla Kavitha’s residence in Banjara Hills and requested she take up the issue with the Chief Minister. They requested her to ensure a ticket to one of them and not Laxma Reddy.

In Station Ghanpur, supporters of MLA T. Rajaiah, climbed a cell phone tower and threatened to jump, if Rajaiah is denied the ticket.

In Bhupalapally, supporters of MLC S. Madhusudhana Chary demanded a ticket for their leader and urged the high command not to give the ticket to sitting MLA Gandra Venkata Ramana Reddy.

In Jangaon, supporters of MLA Muthireddy Yadagiri Reddy and MLC Palla Rajeshwar Reddy took out rallies demanding tickets for their leaders.

In Yellandu, BRS workers held a rally demanding that a ticket not be given to incumbent MLA Haripriya Banoth.

In Vemulawada, supporters of sitting MLA Chennamaneni Ramesh and ticket aspirant Chalmeda Lakshmi Narasimha Rao took out rallies demanding tickets for their respective leaders.

Dissidence is also brewing in the Tandur constituency between MLA Pilot Rohith Reddy and MLC Patnam Mahender Reddy, and in the Nakrekal constituency, between MLA Chirumarthi Lingaiah and former MLA Vemula Veeresham.