Mumbai: Many leaders, from Maharashtra, especially from the rural constituencies with strong agricultural background might be seen flocking to join the Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekahr Rao in coming days, the political analysts feel.
Prominent NCP leader from Pandharpur Bhagirath Bhalke met KCR at Hyderabad on Tuesday. Though details of the meeting between the two leaders could not be known immediately, Bhalke is expected to join the BRS soon. KCR has so far addressed three rallies in Maharashtra. All the rallies were held in the Marathwada region and KCR appealed to the audience to work for "a political change in this country to bring a change in the lives of people, especially farmers." He also said that the BRS will herald the change which is necessary in the country.
KCR's scheme will help farmers immensely
KCR government's flagship schemes like free power for agriculture, financial aid for farmers and Dalits to start their own enterprise have caught the imagination of the farmers across Maharashtra in a big way. Due to this popularity of KCR among the farmers, many of the political aspirants who don't stand a chance to try their luck at elections from the established political parties of the state are likely to switch to BRS ahead of the parliamentary elections next year.
Bhagirath Bhalke, who went to Hyderabad to meet KCR on Tuesday along with Shankar Anna Dhondge, the state president of BRS, had been unhappy with the NCP for some time. Bhagirath's father Bharat Bhalke was a prominent NCP MLA from Pandharpur for many years. However, Bhagirath feels that after the death of his father the party sidelined him. Though the party was in power, no efforts were made for his political revival. In the byelection after the death of Bharat Bhalke, Bhagirath won 1.5 lakh votes and lost to the BJP candidate with a very thin margin of around 2,500 votes.
However, the NCP had been eyeing local industrialist Abhijit Patil since then. Patil was also formally inducted into the party during a recent visit of party supremo Sharad Pawar. This disturbed the Bhalke group and Bhagirath seems to have decided to leave the party.
Bhagirath will follow his father's footsteps
When asked as to what are his future plans, Bhagirath said that he plans to go to the people. "My father always worked hard for the people and they too loved him very much. He was so popular that he could easily win irrespective of which party he contested from," Bhagirath said, adding that he plans to build on the popularity of his father and that of the KCR to win the 2024 assembly election.
Maharashtra had seen AIMIM, a predominantly Telangana based party getting good electoral success in Maharashtra over the past few years. BRS too is expected to gain similar success, Bhalke added.
