Telangana Assembly polls: KCR's BRS releases first list of 115 candidates, CM to contest from two seats

With just a few months to go for the assembly elections, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao's Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) has announced candidates for 115 seats. This time, KCR will contest from two constituencies -- Gajwel and Kamareddy. He has been representing Gajwel in the assembly since 2014.  

Announcing the list, the chief minister claimed that his party would win somewhere between 95-105 seats in the Assembly polls. In the last election, the ruling party had won 88 of 119 seats with nearly 47 per cent vote share.

"BRS will win between 95-105 seats out of the total of 119 in the upcoming assembly polls," Rao told reporters at a press conference. He also asserted that BRS' friendship with AIMIM headed by Asaduddin Owaisi will continue.

The BRS has changed candidates on seven seats -- Boath, Khanapur, Wyra, Korutla, Uppal, Asifabad, and Metpally. The party is yet to decide on candidates for four constituencies –- Goshamahal, Nampally, Jangaon, and Narsapur.

In the 2018 Assembly elections, BRS bagged 88 seats, Congress emerged as the second-largest party with 19 seats and AIMIM won 7 seats. In that election,  
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) could win only 1 seat in the state but this time the party hoping to expand its footprints considering its performance in some bypoll elections.

The BJP won the Dubbak seat in the 2020 bypolls, and the Huzurabad seat in the 2021 byelection, taking its number of seats to 3. The BJP bagged Huzurabad after former BRS leader and minister Etela Rajender defected to the party.

In April this year, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said KCR will soon be routed out of Telangana and the BJP will soon form the government in the southern state. He also said the countdown for KCR and BRS has started and no matter what the Telangana Chief minister does, he would be voted out of power.

"KCR, open your ears and listen clearly. Our fight will not stop until we bring you down from that seat. You cannot do anything as the people of Telangana are with the BJP. No matter what KCR does, he cannot separate BJP from the people in Telangana," he said.