Fear of defeat haunting BRS as pink party to keep off MLC polls

Hyderabad: The BRS has decided to stay away from the Council elections as party chief K Chandrashekar Rao wants leaders to focus on upcoming local body polls. The three Council seats will be going for polls on February 27 and the two national parties have already hit the ground in the campaign.

However, there is no candidate from the main Opposition BRS in the State. The three MLC seats, including Nalgonda-Khammam-Warangal Teachers’ constituency, Medak- Nizamabad-Adilabad- Karimnagar Teachers’ constituency and Karimnagar-Medak-Nizamabad-Adilabad Graduates constituency will be going to polls. The Election Commission has already issued notification for the polls.

The BRS decision to stay away from the contest comes at a time when the party is facing crisis with successive defeats. The party was defeated in the Assembly elections in December 2023 and again swept away in the Lok Sabha polls in April-May 2024. A senior party leader said KCR does not want to face any further embarrassment of defeat. Any defeat in the election will have a demoralising affect on the cadre; hence he decided to stay away from the polls, the leader said. However, the BRS chief had advised party leaders to support any candidate of their choice. This is not the first time the BRS has stayed away from the elections. Before 2014, it had skipped the GHMC polls. Recently, the party had decided not to contest MLC seats under MLA quota thanks to the changed rules by EC.

The nominations for the council elections will be received untill February 10. The last date for withdrawal of candidature is February 13. The polling will be held from 8 am to 4 pm on February 27. The results will be announced on March 3.