BRS intensifies direct campaign, social media battle as Lok Sabha polls draw near

BRS working president K.T. Rama Rao shaking hands with party supporters at a programme recently.

Realising that it is being pushed into a corner by the ruling Congress party with all its might, and in its own measure by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) has begun campaigning actively for the Lok Sabha elections by meeting people, party leaders and supporters and contacting other social groups.

The party’s think tank has shortlisted issues such as the ‘failure’ of the Congress government to keep some of its time-bound promises and the resulting discontent among people, distress in the farming sector following the withering of crops due to the Congress government’s “inept management of available water resources and biding its time in the name of damage to the Medigadda Barrage” as the main planks for its campaign.

Working president of the party K.T. Rama Rao and senior leaders T. Harish Rao, G. Jagadish Reddy, MLAs, MLCs, MPs and those who lost the recent Assembly elections are engaged in poll campaigns by holding at least two to three meetings every day. Party chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao, who met farmers in distress due to crop loss, has already held three public meetings at Karimnagar, Chevella and Sultanpur (near Sangareddy).

While Mr. Rama Rao has been holding meetings in parliamentary constituencies across the State, Mr. Harish Rao is focusing mostly on Medak, Zaheerabad and Karimnagar constituencies. Among others, MP Vaddiraju Ravichandra has been campaigning extensively in Khammam constituency, and Mr. Jagadish Reddy in Nalgonda and Bhuvanagiri.

Now that the process of filing nominations is in progress, Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao has decided to intensify his campaign with as many as 22 roadshows and a few public meetings from April 24 to May 10. The party’s campaign in Nagarkurnool, Peddapalli, Karimnagar, Nizamabad and Warangal constituencies has also been active with the candidates concerned spearheading it supported by leaders of the Assembly segments.

“Identifying the impact of social media on the new-age electorate, we have activated our social media cell and have been training segment-wise influencers and social media warriors on how to reach as many voters as possible in their given areas through social media platforms and community messaging and also to rebut the propaganda being run by Congress and BJP against us,” a BRS leader involved in the process said.

To regain some lost ground in the rural areas, the party’s think tank has activated its village-level influencers too by asking them to initiate discussions on the Congress government’s failures to keep its electoral promises, such as a loan waiver of ₹2 lakh, assistance of ₹2,500 per month to women aged above 18 years in poor families, enhanced social security pensions, Rythu Bharosa and Kalyana Laxmi, and not taking up recruitments except giving appointment letters of posts whose selection process was completed in the BRS rule.

“It’s because of the pressure from the party ranks that some of our MLAs who were in touch with the Congress have backtracked, at least for now. We are relying more on our second-rung leadership and party activists in such constituencies as the intentions of those MLAs are suspicious now,” a former MLA engaged in the poll campaign said.