BRS in Disarray as Leaders Join Other Parties in Warangal

Warangal: While the Congress and BJP have intensified their campaign for the Lok Sabha elections, the BRS party is in disarray as several of its key leaders have quit the party and joined other parties in the erstwhile Warangal district.

There are two parliamentary constituencies in the old Warangal district – Warangal, which is reserved for Scheduled Castes, and Mahabubabad reserved for Scheduled Tribes.

The Congress, BJP, and BRS are in the fight to grab the two parliament seats. The fight is strong between two candidates – Dr. Kadiam Kavya of the Congress and Aroori Ramesh of the BJP in the Warangal parliamentary constituency.

The BRS leaders are not actively participating in the poll campaign for their candidate Dr. Sudheer Kumar.

BRS has many leaders in the district, like former MLAs, former MLCs, and former ministers. All of them are not able to digest the “betrayal” by those like Aroori Ramesh and Kadiam Srihari, who quit the party and became their main opponents in the present Lok Sabha elections.

Notably, all three candidates for the LS polls earlier belonged to the BRS. When the leaders quit the BRS, some party activists and second-rung leaders also exited from the party.

The morale of the BRS cadre remained low at present. Even though they attended programmes of key leaders like Harish Rao and KTR, when they visited Warangal, they showed less interest.

In Mahabubabad, Congress candidate and former Union minister Porika Balram Naik is effectively reaching out to various sections of the people and is seen to have an edge over his opponents. BRS candidate and sitting MP Maloth Kavitha and BJP candidate Prof Azmeera Seetharam Naik are striving hard to be in the race. A lack of cadre for the BJP at ground level is evident.

Chief minister A Revanth Reddy held a huge public meeting in Mahabubabad when Balram Naik was leading in the poll race. The BRS party is still grappling with internal differences among the key leaders.

Former MLC Ravinder Rao and former MLA Shankar Naik were engaged in a heated argument at a public meeting held in connection with the filing of nomination papers of the BRS party candidate and sitting MP Maloth Kavitha in Mahabubabad on Tuesday.

BJP candidate Prof Seetharam Naik took out a huge rally before he filed his nomination papers. Among those present was Union Minister Kiran Rajiju.

A follower of BJP candidate Seetharam Naik and some BJP activists told the Deccan Chronicle that Naik is visiting the houses of BRS party activists and seeking their votes. “He is not trying to contact the BJP’s second-rung leaders or interact with the BJP cadre. How can he win if he seeks the votes of his former BRS chums,” he wondered.

Interestingly, of the six main candidates -- Kavya, Ramesh, Sudheer Kumar, Porika Balram Naik, Kavitha, and Prof Seetharam Naik in the fray in the two parliament constituencies from the three major political parties, Balram Naik was the only leader who was not a defector. He was with the Congress party right from the beginning.

The other five candidates have defected from the BRS party and got the Lok Sabha poll tickets from other parties.