'Anything can happen in politics': Is an alliance or a merger on the cards between BJP and BRS in Telangana?

An alliance between the Bharatiya Rashtra Samiti (BRS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) could be on the cards in Telangana. As per a news report, talks between leaders from the two parties have started. 

As reported by The Indian Express, with the BJP growing in strength in the state and the BRS declining, these could be the reasons that pushed the two parties to explore a common ground between them. The report pointed out that while some leaders in BJP want an alliance, others have called for a complete merger of BRS within the BJP.

However, there are some within the BJP who do not want any alliance with the BRS because they feel that the latter's leadership has been discredited following its poor performance in the Assembly polls and a significant loss in the Lok Sabha elections. 

Of late, following its electoral rout, BRS has been facing a mass exodus of its leaders joining the ruling Congress, while its ailing chief, K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR), has remained largely absent from the public eye.

As per the news report, the BRS is also on edge about the possibility of the state's Congress government filing cases against its leaders. And to make matters worse, the beleaguered party has been under pressure from Central agencies, with KCR’s daughter and MLA, K Kavitha, behind bars for the ongoing Delhi liquor scam.

As per the news report, BRS leader B Vinod Kumar, when asked, did not rule out any possibility, whether that of an alliance or even that of a merger.

“A majority of the leaders in our party are democratic and progressive. And Telangana is a state that has witnessed struggles since pre-Independence days… Elections are too far away anyway," The Indian Express quoted the senior leader.

“Anything can happen in politics, and nothing can be ruled out,” Kumar had said.

In the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls, the BRS, once the pre-eminent party in the newly carved state, was not able to win even a single seat. The Congress and the BJP each had won 8 seats.