KCR during his bus yatra
Credit: X/@AkshayBRS
Hyderabad: In an effort to revive the party's fortunes ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, BRS supremo, K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) on Wednesday launched a 17-day-long bus yatra. At 70, KCR is facing his worst crisis in his long political career.
After the defeat in the assembly elections last year he suffered a fatal fall that led to his hip replacement. Last month, his daughter MLC K Kavitha was arrested by ED in the Delhi liquor scam.
Some of his MLAs are ready to join Congress and already a few sitting MPs either joined the BJP or Congress. BRS also found it difficult to field candidates as many of its leaders shied away from contesting.
Some of the announced candidates also expressed reluctance to contest on a BRS ticket. At this juncture, KCR had embarked on a bus yatra from Miryalaguda. He will address meetings and roadshows in the next 17 days.
On day one he addressed two road shows at Miryalaguda and Suryapet. For KCR, it is the first time in recent times he had taken up such a long election campaign on a bus. During the elections in the past for both assembly and Lok Sabha addressing three to four public meetings in a day, hopping from one venue to another in a helicopter was his style of campaigning.
In the present election campaign, KCR would travel all the Lok Sabha segments in a specially designed bus. Interactions, road shows and meetings have been planned. The bus yatra is being seen as a big morale booster to the party cadre that has been in disarray since the last year's debacle in the assembly polls after being in power for almost a decade.
At Arjalabai in Nalgonda KCR interacted with farmers. The farmers said that the government was not buying paddy from them, leave alone giving Rs 500 promised bonus per quintal. “Lets again fight for our rights,” said KCR. The bus yatra that was flagged off at Telangana Bhavan with a special puja will continue till May 10.