AA Edit | KCR’s socialist challenge

The Bharat Rashtra Samithi’s (BRS) public meeting in Khammam, Telangana, became the occasion on which state chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao, in the presence of the three CMs, Arvind Kejriwal (Delhi), Pinarayi Vijayan (Kerala) and Bhagwant Mann (Punjab), and attendees from the Samajwadi Party and the Left, has resolved to mount a direct challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Thundering a socialist rhetoric-filled challenge, Telangana’s leader KCR, who recently changed the name of his regional party TRS to a nationally relevant BRS, made three things clear — (i) that he would oppose both the Congress and the BJP, (ii) the BRS-led alliance would adopt socialist policies, including opposing the privatisation of public sector enterprises, and (iii) it would set big goals for India, including drinking water and electricity supply for every citizen.

Taking up the plight of the farmers even after 75 years of Independence, or shortage of basic amenities and utilities like water and power to all citizens, Mr Rao argued that this was a result of the combined failure of the politics of the two national parties, the Congress and the BJP. States are still unable to resolve border, water and other issues under them, he maintained.

Setting a Leftist tone for his alliance, Mr Rao hoped the call to employees of PSUs to oppose Mr Modi’s policies will help build a platform.

However, the rhetoric does not hide the arithmetic: Without the Congress, the BRS would fall short of mounting any effective challenge to the BJP. Mr Rao will hope to address this problem after the state elections in Telangana later this year — but the BRS has to win Telangana for it to make any impact.