BRS will make bigger comeback than its setback: KTR

Pointing to growing public dissent against the BJP at the Centre and the Congress in Telangana, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president KT Rama Rao declared that the political mood was shifting against both parties. He ruled out any alliance with the BJP, asserted that K Chandrashekhar Rao would be the BRS’s Chief Ministerial face and exuded confidence that the party would return to power in Telangana.

Speaking at the India Today Conclave South 2026 in Kochi on Wednesday, Rama Rao said the BRS and BJP were poles apart ideologically and had never entered into an alliance in the party’s 26-year history. He recalled that the BRS had contested the 2014, 2018 and 2023 Assembly elections on its own.

“There will be no alliance with the BJP,” he said, rejecting speculation that the BRS could align with the BJP following its defeat in the 2023 Assembly



elections.

The BRS working president said the change of the party’s name from Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) to BRS in October 2022 had not altered its ideology. “If the DNA has not changed, the ideology has not changed, then nothing changes,” he said.

Asked whether he would be the BRS’s Chief Ministerial face in the next Assembly election, he categorically declared, “Absolutely not,” making it clear that Chandrashekhar Rao would lead the party into the next election. “Our comeback will be bigger than our setback,” he remarked.

Rama Rao described the political mood in Telangana as an “RRR” phenomenon, Recall, Regret and Revolt. He said the Congress had come to power in 2023 on more than 420 promises, including schemes involving one tola of gold, scooters and a monthly payment of Rs 2,500 to women, but had failed to fully implement them.