Third Front In Making? Kejriwal, Akhilesh And Communist's Only CM Pinarayi Vijayan Attends KCR’s Mega Rally In Telangana

In a show of strength to boost his national level political ambitions, Telangana Chief Minister (CM) K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) held a mega public meet in Khammam today evening (18 January).

Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leaders have organised this mega public rally in 500 acres of land (100 acres for public seating and 400 acres for vehicle parking) and have targeted to mobilise five lakh people.

BRS cadre from across the state have reached Khammam city which has turned pink with hoardings and banners of BRS party.

Third front in making?

KCR is known for his mega rallies. Even during the Telangana movement before 2014, he held large public gatherings to send a message and determine the course of separate statehood struggle.

Before announcing early elections in 2018 too, he conducted a mega meeting on the outskirts of hyderabad. After gauging the public mood from that meeting he dissolved the state assembly and went for early elections.

But today’s mega meet in Khammam is significant for many reasons.

CM KCR has set his eyes on a larger role in national politics and renamed TRS into BRS in December 2022.

On 14 December, CM KCR opened his party office in the capital in the presence of other regional party leaders like Samajwadi Party Chief Akhilesh Yadav and Janata Dal (S) leader H D Kumaraswamy.

But besides Akhilesh Yadav and Kumaraswamy, no other leaders of other political parties have met CM KCR in Delhi.

This set off a guesstimate that KCR’s BRS plan is a failure at its beginning. Ending this pessimistic estimate, three Chief Ministers attended KCR’s mega meet in Khammam.

Delhi Chief Minister (CM) Arvind Kejriwal, Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan and Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann are attending today’s meet. Along with them former CM of Uttar Pradesh Akhilesh Yadav and CPI national general secretary D Raja have shared the stage with KCR.

It must be noted that both KCR led BRS and Kejriwal led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have portrayed themselves as an alternative to both BJP and Congress. Also, Congress party has recently invited 23 ‘like-minded political parties’ to join the concluding function of Bharat Jodo Yatra in Srinagar but missed both BRS and AAP.

This may indicate that both KCR and Kejriwal may be trying to forge a third front alliance in the run up to 2024 general elections, or may be even for 2029 general elections? 

Why in Khammam?

Khammam is a city located in the eastern corner of Telangana. The erstwhile Khammam district had 10 assembly constituencies. In 2018 elections, KCR’s Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), earlier known as Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), won just one constituency i.e Khammam.

Congress won six, Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP won two and one constituency was won by an independent candidate. YS Sharmila, sister of neighbouring state Andhra Pradesh CM YS Jagan, who launched her own political party named ‘YSR Telangana party’ too received good response in Khammam district.

This shows that beside BRS, many political parties like Congress, TDP and Sharmila’s YSRTP may perform well in the ten cnstituencies of Khammam.

While the BJP, which is steadfastly trying to emerge as winner in the upcoming state assembly elections, has grown strong in many constituencies of northern Telangana, the national party has not made much progress in southern Telangana and it is almost absent in the erstwhile Khammam district.

Thus eyeing an opportunity to gain the forthcoming losses in the northern Telangana from BJP, CM KCR plans to sweep the ten constituencies in Khammam districts. Even ten constituencies are highly significant in Telangana politics as the state assembly has only 119 seats and the magic figure to form the government is just 61 (including one nominated member from the Anglo-Indian community).

He believes, the presence of many opposition parties in the district would benefit the ruling BRS by dividing the anti incumbency vote share.

Today’s mega rally in Khammam is seen as an indication to KCR’s plan to make BRS as a formidable force in this region.