BRS eyes rural body polls for Maharashtra foray  

ADILABAD: The Bharat Rashtra Samithi is preparing to contest local body elections in neighbouring Maharashtra, which will mark its first election outside its home state of Telangana.

Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao will address a rally in Nanded in the first week of January 2023 for the MPTC (Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituency), MPP (Mandal Praja Parishad) and ZPTC (Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituency) elections, after the Sarpanch polls ended a fortnight ago.

Sources said that the party is concentrating on getting a sizeable number of votes in the elections in Maharashtra and Karnataka, to get the ‘national party’ status.

The BRS leadership is hopeful of leaders from other parties who are denied tickets approaching them for the polls. In Maharashtra, the NCP, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) and the Congress have an alliance, due to which there is a possibility of many being denied tickets.

Sources said that the party's high command is of the view that contesting local body polls will create a presence as a viable banner for candidates to contest MLA polls.

The leaders will concentrate on Telugu-speaking areas at borders and motivate locals to strengthen the party by creating awareness of welfare schemes.

BRS leaders from northern Telangana have already started visiting bordering villages and towns in Maharashtra to hold meetings with locals, farmers’ bodies and other groups.

Former Adilabad MP Godam Nagesh, a popular Adivasi bilingual leader, is seen as a key leader to help expand the party’s presence in Maharashtra.

The ex-MP recently held meetings with villagers of Mandvi, Pippal-Patoda, Sarkani, Vandi and Budavarpet, besides the Kinwat Assembly Constituency, in Maharashtra.

There is a sizeable Telugu-speaking population in Bhokar, Vani, Arini-Khelapur, Tharva, Rajura, Yavathmal, Chandrapur, Ballarsha, Gadchiroli, Aheri, Jivithi and Dharmabad areas of Maharashtra. The population of Lambada and Adivasi groups are concentrated in Ramtech, Nagpur, Amarawati, Vardha, Ralegaon, Ghatanji, Wani, Yavathmal and Chandrapur areas.

Godam Nagesh told Deccan Chronicle that they were getting a good response from locals and many youths had shown interest to contest the local body elections, scheduled for February, on BRS tickets.

He said that they will issue B-forms to Adivasi youths in Jawarla village of Kinwat, as they were interested in contesting the Panchayat Samiti polls on BRS tickets.

Godam Nagesh said that the party is prioritising areas from Kinwat in the Nanded district to Aheri in the Gadchiroli district, along the Telangana borders, which comprise 12-15 Assembly constituencies.