Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao chose Khammam as the venue for the maiden public rally of BRS on 18 January not only to announce his national agenda but also to have the perfect blueprint ready to win over the border district with a sizeable population from Andhra Pradesh where his party was completely routed in the Assembly elections of 2018.

The then TRS had performed abysmally in Khammam in 2018, winning only one seat from the district while the rest went to Congress, two to TDP, and a lone seat to an independent candidate. Although post elections they all, save two from Congress, eventually joined the BRS. This prompted KCR to rethink its strategy to woo Khammam which has a large population hailing from the Guntur and Krishna districts of AP. The districts are predominantly inhabited by Kammas. Making amends, he gave the ticket for the Khammam MP seat in 2019 to a TDP leader and a Kamma – Nama Nageshwar Rao who managed to defeat Renuka Chowdary of Congress.

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This time, KCR is determined to win all ten seats in Khammam which is being eyed both by Telangana YSR party chief YS Sharmila as well as N Chandrababu Naidu who is looking to rejuvenate TDP in Telangana with Khammam.

BJP is traditionally weak in Khammam, but the addition of Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy, who was sidelined by Rao and inclined to join the saffron party, might upset his calculations. Reddy, a former BRS MP is expected to join the BJP on 18 January, the very day on which KCR will hold his mammoth rally with at least four other chief ministers including Pinarayi Vijayan, Arvind Kejriwal, and Bhagwat Singh Mann. Former UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav will also be present at the meeting.

Apart from rejuvenating BRS cadre in Khammam, KCR’s trump card would be the Left parties which have a substantial base in Khammam. The Left has already decided to mobilize its people for the BRS rally on 18 January which almost 5 lakh people are expected to attend. An electoral alliance between the two in the future is also on the cards. This is why perhaps KCR is sure of winning all ten seats in the district.

The Khammam rally will also be an acid test for the leaders of the newly-formed Andhra Pradesh unit of BRS which has also been asked to bring supporters from the neighbouring state. With their support, KCR would like to project the image of a pan-Indian leader instead of one who is against all those from Seemandhra.