Playing the mind game perfectly, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) president and Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao has put the Opposition Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) under pressure by announcing the first list of 115 candidates four months ahead of the Assembly election.
By leaving only four seats pending, dropping seven sitting legislators and giving chance to six newcomers, the BRS chief has sent a strong signal to the party cadres and also to the Opposition that he is well prepared for the election.
Relying heavily on the performance of his sitting members through surveys and internal feedback, Mr. Rao gave a third chance to almost everyone, who won on party ticket in 2018 and dropping some controversial non-performers. The defectors from other parties after the 2018 elections barring one or two too found a place in the list, giving a clear indication that the BRS chief did not want to experiment at this juncture in his pursuit for a hat-trick.
Invoking the auspicious day and time, Mr. Rao has left the Congress and the BJP far behind and pushed them to a corner. While the Congress is still in the process of inviting applications from the aspirants through specially prepared forms, the BJP has said that its central leadership and more particularly the BJP’s Parliamentary Board will decide on the party nominees.
Going by the Opposition parties’ ongoing exercise, it is likely to take some more time before the Congress and the BJP are in a position to finalise the list. For the Congress, the applications will be first vetted by the Pradesh Screening Committee, which will then forward it to the Central Election Committee and finally seek the approval of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) before the list is out. This looks time consuming and it is also not clear, if the Congress would be in a position to announce the names of all candidates at a go like the BRS did.
The Congress now has to tread its path cautiously to select the right and winnable candidates to take on the might of the ruling party and the BJP at the same time. Though, the rush for ticket is high, the party will have to plan its strategy in such a way that it has to nip any possible dissidence and heart burn among the leaders, who are not able to make it into the Congress list.
The BJP has a problem of a different kind. It has to struggle to identify candidates for all the 119 constituencies. Indications given so far has been that it will be in a position to announce its candidates for at least 40 seats. The party has clearly issued direction to the important BJP leaders in the State that they will have to enter the poll fray in Assembly constituencies, this includes the sitting MPs too.
The BRS list has also dashed the hopes of the BJP leadership to lure the dropped candidates. Now it has to only try and encourage the BRS leaders, who aspired for ticket but failed to make it.
This puts the BRS leadership way ahead of its rival. By giving the go-ahead to 115 candidates, the party supremo has ensured that these leaders can now completely focus on their constituency and do away with any irritants in the form of dissidence activity. Even the voices of dissent would be crushed mercilessly was evident as the Chief Minister said the party would crack down heavily.
The task for the ruling BRS is to set its house in order in the constituencies where the candidates have been changed and focus on segments where the strong aspirants could not find a place in the list. At the same time, the Congress and the BJP have to hurry up and join the race to fight the BRS by announcing its candidates at the earliest possible time.
