Hyderabad: The BRS, which claims that the Congress is its main rival in the state, is assessing the impact of Karimnagar MP Bandi Sanjay Kumar's exit as state party president and Union minister G. Kishan Reddy taking over, months before the Assembly polls.
Sources said the news came in when BRS president and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao was closeted with a few ministers, party MPs, MLAs, MLCs and senior leaders at Pragathi Bhavan and was preparing to leave for a function.
Sources added that that became the topic of discussion till he left at 3.15 pm.
The BRS has been engaged in a political slugfest with BJP since the 2019 Lok Sabha polls when the party won four seats. It escalated after the BJP snatched the Dubbak Assembly seat from the BRS in a bypoll and gave a scare in the GHMC elections in 2020-end.
It reached its peak with former BRS minister Etala Rajendar in June 2021, sacked by Rao, trouncing his former party in a bypoll in November 2021 in Huzurabad.
The CM declared a war on the BJP and initiated efforts to unite the Opposition for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. The Munugode bypoll in November 2022 sparked a fresh battle but the BRS prevailed this time.
Things changed after the Congress' bumper victory in Karnataka Assembly polls. The CM and party's top leaders started targeting the Congress and sparing the BJP. BRS working president and IT minister K.T.Rama Rao's sudden tour to Delhi last week to meet Union ministers further fuelled speculations that the BRS and the BJP had become although claimed otherwise.
The changes in the BJP state leadership, coincidentally, come a week after Rama Rao's trip.
In the recent media interaction, Rama Rao had stated that the BRS considered the Congress the main rival as the BJP had failed to retain deposits in 107 Assembly seats in 2018; he predicted that the BJP would lose deposits in 100 seats this time.
