KCR\'s \'Mission 100\' begins; 60 LS seats identified

Hyderabad: With the April/May 2024 Lok Sabha elections just over a year-and-a-half away, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) president and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao has rolled up his sleeves to take on the BJP at the centre, identifying 60 seats across 11 states as part of the newly launched BRS 'Mission 100' target.

Party insiders said Rao has been working on an elaborate ‘Mission 100’ exercise with party's senior leaders B. Vinod Kumar, S. Madhusudhana Chary and others for the past few days to identify 100 Lok Sabha constituencies in various states from where the BRS could contest on its own or in alliance with non-BJP parties.  So far, he could identify 60 seats in 11 states, including Maharashtra, Karnataka, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Kerala, Puducherry, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.

Sources said that Rao is yet to begin the process to identify seats in Andhra Pradesh since there is no clarity on the political situation in AP with the TDP and Jana Sena trying to form an alliance with the BJP against YSRCP and whether YSRCP will join hands with the BRS in that case.

Rao was scheduled to leave for the national capital shortly after Christmas to focus on national politics and the BRS expansion plans in other states.
However, his Delhi trip was postponed due to President Droupadi Murmu's visit to Telangana for a southern sojourn from December 26 to 30.

The CM has decided to see off the President at Rashtrapati Nilayam, Bolarum, after attending "At Home" on December 30. Rao received the President at Hakimpet air base on December 26.

The unexpected developments in the BRS MLAs poachgate case, such as the High Court transferring the investigation from SIT to the CBI and party’s MLA Pilot Rohith Reddy facing ED interrogation in the case, were also cited as reasons for Rao postponing his trip to New Delhi. Rao is expected to fly to the national capital after Sankranthi, sources said.

The CM has set a ‘Mission 100’ target for the BRS to contest 100 Lok Sabha seats in the 2024 general elections, citing the difficulties of expanding the BRS to all states in a short period and finding candidates for all 543 seats in the year leading up to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Moreover, the CM needs to focus on the Assembly polls scheduled for December 2023 before the April 2024 Lok Sabha polls as retaining power in Telangana is important to play a key role in national politics.

After the Assembly elections, the CM would have only four months to prepare for the Lok Sabha elections.  As a result, the CM has started the exercise of identifying 100 Lok Sabha seats where the BRS can make an impact on its own or in alliance with other non-BJP parties.

They said this exercise would go on until the 100 Lok Sabha seats are identified as part of ‘Mission 100’ expected to be completed by February 2023 and the CM would begin the next course of action of identifying suitable candidates to contest the Lok Sabha polls.

While there are 28 states, Rao may contest the Lok Sabha elections in 12 or 13 states where there is considerable presence of Telugu population.