The first signs of a possible split in the Bharat Rashtra Samithi seem to have become visible in the state legislative assembly on Wednesday, when senior party leader and former minister T Harish Rao openly defied the call given by his cousin and party working president K T Rama Rao for a walk-out from the assembly.
After a heated debate on the issue of Musi Riverfront and Rejuvenation project issue during the question hour in the assembly, KTR announced that his party was stating a walkout in protest against the government’s lack of clarity on the project.
Along with KTR, a few BRS MLAs walked out of the house. But surprisingly, Harish Rao and a few other members remained in the House instead of leaving, leading to speculation about differences in approach.
The episode glaringly exposed the absence of a clearly defined leadership structure within the BRS legislature party. Although KTR serves as the party’s working president, he is not the official leader of the legislature party.
Since party president K Chandrasekhar Rao, who is the Leader of Opposition, has not been coming to the assembly, the party MLAs are confused as to whom should they listen to. In fact, KCR named Harish Rao, his nephew, as the BRS deputy floor leader, not KTR.
So, in the absence of KCR, it should be Harish Rao, who should give a call for the walk-out of the BRS members from the assembly on any issue. Instead, KTR gave the call. Since he is the working president of the party, some MLAs listen to him, but not Harish Rao and his followers.
This lack of clarity may result in inconsistent decisions on the assembly floor and the Congress ranks quickly used the opportunity to spread the news on social media that all is not well between Harish Rao and KTR.
However, there are no further developments in the party that indicated that there is a kind of split within the party. However, the incident has raised questions about internal coordination and leadership issues in the absence of KCR.
