Boost ahead of TS Assembly polls: BRS wins 10 Maharashtra gram panchayats

This is the third time this year that the Bharat Rashtra Samithi of KCR has created political ripples in Maharashtra

Hyderabad: In a major boost for the Bharat Rashtra Samithi and Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao ahead of the Assembly polls in Telangana, the BRS has won 10 gram panchayats in two districts in Maharashtra after the gram panchayat elections held on Sunday.

According to news agency IANS, of the 2,359 gram panchayats which went to polls on Sunday, the results of around 2,000 have been declared so far on Monday, in which the BRS has won 9 gram panchayats in Bhandara district and one in the neighbouring Beed district. The reports say these figures were likely to change as the results from all gram panchayats were yet to be declared and the final position would be known only later.

---

This is the third time this year that the BRS has created political ripples in Maharashtra after it notched a first electoral victory outside Telangana by bagging a sarpanch seat in Ambehola village of Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district in May 2023, followed by another sarpanch winning in Savkheda village of Jalgaon district in June.

The BRS has been making waves in the neighbouring State ever since Chandrashekhar Rao drove down in June with his entire cabinet and top party leaders to pray at the famous Pandharpur Temple to mark the auspicious Ashadhi Ekadashi festival.

Raising the slogan of ‘Ab ki Baar, Kisan Sarkar’, Chandrashekhar Rao addressed several public meetings in Maharashtra in recent months and has vowed to expand the BRS in a big way in the State, with plans to contest the upcoming 2024 Assembly elections and unseat all the existing alliances, the ruling or the Opposition, as well.

The BRS has become the second major party from Telangana after the All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), which is also making electoral inroads into the already crowded and multi-coloured political scenario of Maharashtra, sparking concerns among the established national and local home-grown parties.

According to the agency report, the AIMIM has successfully flown its ‘Kite’ and got its candidates elected in local civic elections in certain pockets, plus the Maharashtra Assembly and also won a Lok Sabha seat. Other outstation parties like Samajwadi Party and Janata Dal (U) have one legislator each, plus representation in some civic bodies, though others like Bahujan Samaj Party are yet to make a mark in Maharashtra, the report adds.