“We are not the B-Team of either Congress or Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as being accused of by both, often. We are the team of farmers, farm workers, women, minorities and downtrodden sections of the society and our goal is to bring a qualitative change in the lives of people”, president of Bharata Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has said.
Addressing a public meeting at Sarkoli, located about 20 km away from Pandharpur in Solapur district of Maharashtra, on Tuesday he said all political parties had been betraying the farming community since Independence and it was time for transformation by joining hands of farmers and farm workers, who comprise about 60% of the electorate. “They [farmers]could dictate the fortunes of parties if stayed united and get the due benefits, which were being denied to them all these days,” the Chief Minister said.
Bhagirath Bhalke, son of a three-time MLA from Pandharpur-Mangalwedha Constituency Bharat Bhalke who died of post-COVID complications in 2020, joined BRS along with his followers and several other leaders of the areas in the presence of Mr. Rao. Mr. Bhalke lost the 2021 by-election as Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) candidate with 3,730 votes. His father was elected MLA for three consecutive terms from 2009 representing Swabhimani Paksha, Congress and NCP, respectively.
