The expansion plans of a political party which derived its identity in the statehood into another state can be awkward. When Telangana Rashtra Samithi(TRS) rechristened itself as Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and announced its national plans, questions about the party’s acceptance were raised. Over the last few months, as BRS has been making serious efforts to expand in Maharashtra, they have devised a campaign with a combination of welfare schemes and cultural identities and leveraged the existing angst to project BRS as an alternative.
There was no political vacuum in Maharashtra, a state with almost a dozen national and regional parties in the fray. BRS’s strategy has been to find cracks in between and position the party as a solution to the existing issues. The key focus has been farmer issues, and in a state that witnesses the highest number of farmer suicides, K Chandrashekhar Rao’s BRS has promised a slew of welfare schemes to allay the problems faced by the farming community. Their campaign is based on the work done in the past nine years in Telangana, where every creation was based on the lack of development.
With the slogan ‘abki baar, kisan sarkar’ (This time, there will be a farmers’ government), KCR has promised schemes similar to the ones his government has rolled out in Telangana for the farmers. This includes providing Rs 10,000 per acre to farmers and also providing free water for irrigation and free electricity round the clock.
Speaking to TNM, Himanshu Tiwari, BRS national general secretary, says there already is acceptance among the voters in Maharashtra. “BRS has already created space in Maharashtra. It is only a matter of taking this further. People have responded to our programs. Despite there being so many parties in Maharashtra, they have not done enough for the farmers and this is another reason why people are accepting us. Himanshu says that the party’s focus is on farmers and their issues across the state but particularly in the border areas, Vidarbha, Marathwada and western Maharashtra.
“We chose Maharashtra as the first state to expand for two reasons. Firstly, because the situation of the farmers here is dire, the farmer suicide rate is very high,” Himanshu says. “Secondly, Telangana and Maharashtra share a 1,000 km border, and people along the border can see how the welfare schemes of the Telangana government have benefited the people. In border districts, people are already aware of how developed villages are on the Telangana side of the border,” he adds.
In the Marathwada region, BRS is hoping to capitalise on the grievances of farmers who own small plots of land and marginalised farmers. The region is known as the sugar belt of Maharashtra and the economy and the politics have been driven by sugarcane farmers, sugar factories and sugar cooperatives. Marathwada has traditionally been the stronghold of Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
Amongst farmers and farm workers in the region over the years, there has been a perception that the NCP caters only to wealthy, sugarcane-growing farmers and other commercial agriculture-related communities. There is a feeling that no party has been able to articulate the issue of small and marginal farmers and landless agricultural labourers. Those with less than two acres of land have been facing the worst crisis, and no party has represented them.
In contrast, across the border in Telangana, KCR’s government has implemented several welfare schemes and a majority of them have been focussed on the farming and rural sectors.
Prof Venkatesu from the University of Hyderabad (UoH) says that the Telangana government has introduced 316 schemes in the last nine years. With schemes like Mission Kakatiya, which aims to restore irrigation tanks, Raitha Bandhu which promises assistance of Rs 10,000 per acre every year to farmers, Rythu Bima which assures financial relief and support to the kin of a farmer in case of his death and creation of Rythu Vedikas, a one-stop platform for farmers, KCR has sustained the focus on farmers in Telangana and this is being communicated to voters in Maharashtra effectively.
Prof Venkatesu says that Telangana has performed much better than Maharashtra over the last nine years in terms of agrarian advancement and production. And this can add to the appeal of BRS to voters in Maharashtra, he adds. Many farm workers in border districts had migrated from Telangana to Maharashtra for jobs. They too, are being wooed by BRS with social security, better working conditions and jobs.
BRS has been working on putting together a grassroots-level structure for the party given that there is no existing cadre for the party in Maharashtra. Party spokespersons say that BRS now has a presence in 15 districts and has almost 14 lakh members across the state.
KCR has created nine committees, each to cater to a demographic like women, youth, OBC, SC and ST communities and farmers. KCR’s nephew, Kalvakuntla Vamshidhar Rao, has been recently appointed as the Maharashtra in-charge of BRS. He has also appointed a coordinator for the Nagpur division and a co-coordinator for each of the six divisions of Maharashtra.
Many local leaders from other parties have joined BRS and several more are in talks with the party leadership, Himanshu Tiwari says. Prominent amongst the ones who have joined is former NCP MLA Bharat Bhalke’s son Bhagirath Bhalke. Other leaders from NCP, including former Chandrapur president Priyadarshan Ajay Ingle, secretary of the youth wing Hemant Singh Thakur and Thane vice-president Maqsood Khan have joined the party too.
Former BJP MLA Deepak Atram, former BJP MP Haribhau Rathode, former NCP MLAs Bhanudas Murkute, Anna Saheb Mane and Shankar Anna Dhondge have joined BRS in KCR’s presence.
BRS has opened a physical party office in Nagpur and over the next few months, three more offices in Mumbai, Pune and Aurangabad will be started, party spokespersons say. Coordinators for all six regions of the state have been appointed by KCR.
The BRS campaign in Maharashtra began at least three years ago, say political observers. Since March 2020, senior editors in newspapers, particularly Marathi vernaculars have been contacted for placing ads and advertorials in favour of BRS. Marathi channels too have been playing BRS advertisements several times a day.
Over the last few months, BRS advertisements have been found everywhere in Maharashtra. A veteran Marathi journalist says there has been a bombardment of advertisements on what schemes have been given to farmers in Telangana. KCR has been successful in creating a positive perception.
From his 600-vehicle convoy to roping in local leaders, KCR has been successful in capturing the public attention in Maharashtra. His rallies in Nagpur and Nanded saw a huge turnout and he got featured prominently in the local press too. He timed one of his visits to coincide with Ashada Ekadashi, when lakhs of pilgrims make their way to Pandharpur. KCR visited the Vittala Rukmini shrine in Pandharpur and requested permission to shower petals on devotees walking to the temple from a helicopter, a request denied by the state government.
Many parts of present-day Maharashtra such as the border areas of Hingoli and Aurangabad were part of the erstwhile Nizam kingdom. So there was commonality in culture, food, dressing, festivals and even dialect. There is a lot of Telugu in Marathi and vice versa. Many families are married across the state border. The welfare model of Telangana has been giving some benefit to most members of the family – in the form of pension, agricultural benefit or medical assistance, so people in the border districts have already seen the tangible benefits. BRS is largely relying on these ‘roti-beti’ relations between people of both states to broaden their base in Maharashtra.
KCR seems determined to make a dent in Maharashtra. Going by the optics, he seems to be successful in at least making a splash and the reactions of both the ruling parties – BJP and Eknath Shinde faction of Shiv Sena and the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi shows that nobody is taking KCR lightly.
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