BRS pins hope on LS elections

Hyderabad: After the poll debacle in the recently held Assembly elections, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi began preparations for the Lok Sabha elections as the party has finalized the name of sitting MP G Ranjith Reddy for the Chevella Lok Sabha segment.

The BRS working president KT Rama Raoasked the party leaders to work with the only target of winning the Lok Sabha segment. He asked the party candidate to co-ordinate with the public representatives and party leaders taking them along in the campaign. "Telangana means BRS and the party has taken up many development and welfare activities in the state. It is wrong to say that the BRS has done nothing for Telangana," the BRS working president told the party leaders.

The party leaders particularly from the Chevella Lok Sabha segment were summoned by KTR to the head office at Telangana Bhavan on Monday to discuss the strategy for the ensuing Lok Sabha elections. Party leaders including MLAs and MLCs from the Assembly segments under Chevella were called by the party high command for gearing up for the polls.

The party had faced setback in the recently held Assembly elections where the Congress party came into power and BRS was restricted to just 39 seats. The BRS leaders faced one more setback after the BRS chief K Chandrashekar Rao had an accident and had undergone hip replacement surgery. He will be out of public life for four more weeks.

The party had already announced candidates in some segments like B Vinod Kumar for Karimnagar and Madan Reddy for the Medak. However, it would be interesting to see whether the party would change its mind to reconsider the candidates in the wake of defeat of the party in the Assembly elections.

The party had won 9 Lok Sabha seats in the 2019 elections after giving a slogan of 'CaruSaruPadaharu'. With surge of BJP in the northern Telangana and Congress in southern Telangana, the party is not sure how many seats it can win in the elections, said a senior BRS leader.

Talking to the media after the meeting, Ranjith Reddy said that the Congress party has given 412 promises in the State before elections and failed to implement them. He expressed the confidence of winning the Chevella Lok Sabha with a huge majority. He said that the party would surpass the 1.09 lakh votes which got in the segments during the recent Assembly elections.

He also ridiculed the comments from the Congress and BJP that the BRS would be getting empty soon. He said that the BRS would maintain focus on the Assembly constituencies where the party lost election.

Former ministers P Mahender Reddy, Sabita Indra Reddy, Kale Yadaiah, Prakash Goud, Arikepudi Gandhi, K Maheshwar Reddy, M Anand and others participated in the meeting.