Hyderabad: Leaders of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) will campaign for the JDS in the Karnataka Assembly elections only after the Election Commission of India (ECI) issues the poll notification, although the three major political parties in Karnataka have already ramped up their campaign even before the EC announced the poll schedule for the April/May elections.
The upcoming elections in Karnataka, a three-cornered contest between the BJP, Congress, and JDS, will provide the BRS with an opportunity to establish itself as a national party. However, the BRS, which announced its support for the JDS, has been missing in action, even as JDS leader and former Karnataka CM H.D.Kumaraswamy has been on a whirlwind campaign trail covering all Assembly constituencies by undertaking ‘Pancharatna Rath Yatra’ since December last year.
Soon after the EC issues the poll notification, Chandrashekar Rao is expected to deploy a team of 50 BRS leaders to Karnataka, including ministers, MLAs, MPs, and MLCs. Yet, there is no clarity regarding the CM's Karnataka campaign.
Rao stated during a meeting in the BRS office in December last year that he wants to see Kumaraswamy as the "future CM of Karnataka" and that the BRS will work with the JDS to achieve this goal. According to party insiders, Rao intends to maintain his cordial relations with Kumaraswamy by campaigning for the JDS, as promised, and by contesting a few Lok Seats in Karnataka in alliance with the JDS in 2024.
It may be noted that Kumaraswamy was present at all significant events during the TRS-to-BRS transition. He flew to Hyderabad to attend the party's state executive meeting on October 5, last year, at which a resolution rebranding TRS as BRS was passed and sent to the EC for approval.
Kumaraswamy was present for the formal launch of the BRS on December 9 last year in Hyderabad, following the EC's approval of the name change on December 8, as well as the inauguration ceremony of the BRS national office in New Delhi on December 14.
