KCR deploys 25 survey teams to get voter pulse

HYDERABAD: After announcing BRS candidates for 115 Assembly constituencies in one go on August 21, party president and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao, on possible second thought, has deployed 25 survey teams to districts to gauge the pulse of voters, BRS sources said.

With the Chief Minister retaining all but seven MLAs, survey teams have been assigned to assess and identify the constituencies where people were in favour of the BRS government but against their incumbent legislators.

These survey reports will be obtained every week until October when the Election Commission of India is expected to release the poll schedule. As per the findings of the survey reports, Rao will explore the possibilities of replacing candidates in October, when the filing of nominations for Assembly polls is expected to begin, sources said.

With Chandrashekar Rao giving one more opportunity for incumbent MLAs to contest upcoming Assembly polls scheduled for December, there are fears of anti-incumbency against sitting MLAs, who were elected multiple times to the Assembly.

Moreover, a dozen constituencies are facing intense dissidence, with local BRS leaders demanding the replacement of sitting MLAs, and even threatening to defeat them. The BRS currently has 104 MLAs, of which 68 MLAs have been elected twice or more to the Assembly.

Deploying fresh survey teams is sending jitters to candidates, who fear losing tickets in the event of negative reports. The buzz in BRS circles is that there is severe anti-incumbency against a few sitting MLAs who were retained, and there are chances of replacing them based on fresh survey reports.

Rao was supposed to hold a meeting with 113 candidates (Rao accounting for two others) on Monday to discuss Assembly polls and campaign strategy, but it was indefinitely put off. The reason being cited by party sources is that the Chief Minister wanted to obtain survey reports on all candidates before holding the first meeting with them.

The Chief Minister wants to read out the survey results in the meeting, warn candidates figuring in the ‘red category’ and explore replacements in such constituencies where there is no improvement in future reports.