Why KCR isn’t a trifle worried about ECI’s decision?

HYDERABAD: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has delisted Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) from being a state party in Andhra Pradesh. So, what? Does it really rattle BRS supremo K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR)?

Of course, no. It doesn’t. Let’s examine the reasons for the same.

KCR has time and again, through his more than four-decade electoral politics, fully understood the nuances of the Representation of People Act and also the rules of the game. He is ambitious, but not greedy. He is courageous, but doesn’t demonstrate bravado.

Before launching the BRS formally on last Dussehra day, KCR has indeed mulled the idea of playing a national role and accordingly worked his way to understand the politics of many regional satraps across the spectrum.

He surely realised that it’s neither easy nor is it sustainable to stitch a coalition with political parties with diametrically opposite ideologies and schools of thought. It is not plausible to bring together tall leaders in their domains with personalised agendas under one umbrella. The history of Federal Front and the subsequent exercise by him actually sharpened his saw and gave him a better understanding of his peers and colleagues elsewhere in India who are opposed to the Congress and the BJP and always ensured their political identity.

While he did a SWOT analysis of his own party and politics, KCR effortlessly made out the SWOT of each of those political forces and their respective bosses.

With all his experiences, KCR went back to the drawing board and redesigned the plan. He understood the need for creating a national entity that’s not a butt of jokes, but would schematically grow into a political alternative. For, he has seen from the aisle how his former boss N Chandrababu Naidu has always become a subject of ridicule by calling himself a national president and his son Lokesh, national general secretary of a self-proclaimed national party, whose nomenclature is not even notional by any yardstick applied by the Constitution.

KCR is very well aware of his scope and limitations. And, he’s systematic. He builds a movement. For now, it’s with this slogan of “ab ki baar, kisaan sarkar” that he has begun to scrape the surface of serious national agenda. He laid out his plan of action that indefatigably goes well with people of all sections of society, more so the farming community.

This draws the attention of peasants across the country.

And, at the outset, he appointed a State unit president for the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh and is guiding him to slowly commence the activity there. He’s not ready to open a war front with his “behind-the-scenes” admirer and Chief Minister Y S Jagan, though there are too many ideological and philosophical differences that never bridged the gap between them.

Well, KCR’s actions must be observed with a discerning eye. He slowly began to let in small leaders and influencers from Maharashtra into BRS. He has done a few impressive public meetings in the Nanded region of the erstwhile Hyderabad state.

Everyday, some admissions into the party and a photo-op let the BRS stay in the news actively. Not surprisingly, all the new entrants into the party are from Maharashtra.

KCR is also mulling multiple options in Karnataka where his buddy H D Kumaraswamy is trying to be in the political reckoning, despite the Congress and the BJP fiercely battling for capturing, retaining power respectively.

How KCR would unveil the BRS’s political facet in Karnataka must be a thing to watch.

Will he align with Janata Dal (Secular) and contest the upcoming elections by sharing seats or will the BRS field its own contestants in the Assembly seats where there is a dominant Telugu population has yet to be seen. Because, KCR knows the difference between Telugus from Andhra and Telangana living in Karnataka and their political orientation.

KCR is a not a political gallivant. He tests the depth of the waters before jumping in to swim.

Thus, Karnataka could be the second State followed by Andhra Pradesh in the pecking order for the BRS political positioning.

With all these calculations in the back of his mind, the BRS supremo has embarked on the mission of building a national party. He is confident that he will one day ensure that BRS fulfils the constitutional prescription of rules to be officially called a national party. Until then, KCR has no shy in sporting an “L” board.

It’s ridiculous for those detractors or those deriving vicarious pleasure propagating that the BRS was stripped of state party status in AP, because KCR until he genuinely launched an exercise to build a national party, never had him addressed as national president or international president or the universal head of the party.

Just because a State was bifurcated, no political party that exited there would obviously become a national party. Those who made such overtures became a spectacle in front of the wise society.

So, ECI’s actions cannot be viewed through a magnifying glass and blown out of proportions.