Will BRS follow JD (S) to join hands with NDA?
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Is BRS, which lost power to Congress in Telangana in the recently held elections, warming up to BJP and planning to join the NDA led by the saffron party? This question is being discussed in political circles after party leader K. Kavitha’s social media post on the construction of Ram Temple in Ayodhya. She called it a dream come true for crores of Hindus.
“During the auspicious time when the idol of Sri Seetharama Chandra Swamy is installed in Ayodhya, which is a dream come true for crores of Hindus, the country welcomes it along with Telangana,” she wrote while referring to the preparations for inauguration of the temple.
Kavitha, who is daughter of BRS president and former Telangana chief minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, also shared a video of the under-construction temple along with her post on ‘X’.
This is being seen as a U-turn by the BRS, which always called itself a secular party. This comes a week after BRS lost power to Congress in Telangana after ruling India’s youngest state for two terms.
Political analysts see Kavitha’s comment as an indication that BRS may go the JD (S) way to join the BJP-led NDA. The JD (S) headed by former Prime Minister Deve Gowda joined NDA in September, a few months after both BJP and JD (S) suffered defeat in Karnataka Assembly elections at the hands of Congress party.
However, the BRS has come under flak for its apparent change in stand both from BJP and non-BJP quarters.
The timing of Kavitha’s statement is also significant. After losing power in Telangana, the BRS has lost its clout. KCR’s plans for expanding BRS to other states have suffered a blow with the party’s defeat in its home district.
With Congress now its number one enemy in Telangana, the BRS may be keen to come closer to the BJP.
BRS leader and former deputy chief minister Kadiam Srihari also made certain remarks after the party's defeat in elections. He predicted that the Congress government will collapse in a few months and BRS will come to power again with the help of BJP and AIMIM.
In the 119-member Assembly, Congress has 64 members. The BRS won 39 seats while BJP won eight seats. The AIMIM retained its seven seats.
A section of people already had a feeling that BRS and BJP have a tacit understanding. After creating a hype that Kavitha will be arrested for her alleged role in Delhi liquor scam, the state BJP leaders became silent.
The BRS also stopped speaking about the alleged attempt by BJP to topple its government by luring its MLAs with offers of huge money. Last year, three alleged agents of BJP leaders were arrested near Hyderabad while trying to poach a few MLAs of BRS.
KCR had made it a big issue and had even sought intervention of the President of India and the Chief Justice of India to save democracy. The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Telangana police had also issued notice to BJP general secretary B. L. Santosh and some other suspects closely linked to saffron party’s central leaders for questioning.
This alleged tacit understanding between BRS and BJP may have been one of the factors for the defeat of BRS. A section of Muslim voters backed the Congress party.
Taunting Kavitha over her statement on the Ram temple issue, BJP supporters recalled the statements made by KCR, his son and BRS working president K. T. Rama Rao and Kavitha over Ayodhya issue in the past. Some of them posted on social media the video clips from the speeches made by the BRS leaders in the past, finding fault with the movement for construction of the temple.
They all had stressed the need for the country to rise above the Masjid-Mandir dispute to focus on the country’s development. During the election campaign, KCR had raised the issue of Babri Masjid demolition.
Addressing an election rally in Nizamabad Urban constituency, he had asked who demolished Babri Masjid. Slamming the Congress party for using Muslims as a vote bank, he remarked that the party is also doing dramas.
“It is now saying that it will shut nafrat ki dukan. I am asking who demolished Babri Masjid…who got it demolished. If you are secular, you should always be secular and your work should prove this,” the BRS chief had said.
