The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) is facing an existential crisis after it was voted out of power for the first time since the formation of Telangana in last year’s Assembly polls and subsequently failed to win even a single seat in the Lok Sabha polls.

However, party working president and former Telangana minister K T Rama Rao, who is also known as KTR, says neither the Congress nor the BJP can erase the BRS from Telangana and claims that regional parties will rule the roost in national politics in the near future.

In an interview with The Indian Express, KTR urges people to vote for regional parties in Maharashtra, where the BRS unsuccessfully attempted to spread its wings, and speaks about how the party is coping with the electoral losses and the road ahead, among other issues. Excerpts:

The BRS had national ambitions before facing a rout in last year’s Telangana Assembly polls. Where do expansion plans stand as of now?

We have hit a pause button. When you lose your base, you are forced to introspect and take a strategic retreat. Our focus is entirely on winning back Telangana now as local body elections are on the horizon. State politics is taking up all our time and effort now and hence we are not contesting in Maharashtra or anywhere else. Hopefully, the time will come when we can take up the (national) plans that we had.

Your party was in power for 10 years before you lost the polls. How do you plan to bounce back?

The people of Telangana have been very kind and gave two terms in office to a party whose stated objective was the formation of the state. We have done well and lost the Assembly polls by a whisker due to the false promises of the Congress, which promised the moon to the people. Today, they are struggling to keep their promises.

Last year was the toughest in our existence and we will only rise from here. I can see the mood of the people changing. They can see the issues we are taking up, be it farmers or youth and also those losing their houses to the ‘bulldozer raj’ in Telangana. At the end of the day, politics is a see-saw with highs and lows. What matters is the consistent effort to win and we are making that effort.

Do you think there is a Telangana sentiment at play even now? If yes, is it with the BRS?

It is 100% with the BRS. Like nationalistic fervour always exists, sub-regional and sub-nationalistic fervour also exist and that Telangana fervour is always with one man – K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR). Whether the name is TRS or BRS, the fact remains that our flag and leader have not changed.

There is speculation that the BRS is going soft on the NDA government, especially after your sister and party MLC K Kavitha was jailed in connection with the alleged Delhi liquor scam…

Those parties which do not have a national footprint are focused on our immediate political rival, which in our case is the Congress and not the BJP.

We faced one of our toughest challenges with Kavitha’s arrest but we did not budge and back off. She got bail and now we hope that the case will be quashed.

There is no question of going soft on the BJP. We will continue to question and challenge them. I have questioned the Narendra Modi government over not taking action against (Telangana CM) Revanth Reddy despite him turning the state into an “ATM” to fund the party in other elections. If anyone is going soft, it is the BJP on the Congress in Telangana.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) raided Telangana Revenue Minister Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy but there has been no word on what they found. Revanth’s greatest cheerleaders are (Union ministers) G Kishan Reddy and Bandi Sanjay Kumar, who have not raised their voice against the misgovernance in Telangana.

You seem to have developed an antagonistic relationship with Rahul Gandhi…

I personally do not have any antagonism against anybody and only oppose the Congress over its failure to keep promises. We also oppose the BJP for the same reason.

Do you think it is possible for a regional party to exist without having an alliance with either of the two big national parties?

If Telugu movies can become pan-India, why can’t a regional party gain national importance? Now (Andhra Pradesh CM) Chandrababu Naidu is playing a key role in Delhi. KCR may play a bigger role in 2029. There is nothing wrong in being based out of Hyderabad and wanting to call the shots in Delhi.

In the future, you will see more regional outfits emerging. I do not see the Congress, which has lost three elections, bouncing back. The BJP has lost the majority in Parliament and the future belongs to regional parties. In the next 10 years, I do not see either the Congress or the BJP coming to power on its own. The next decade belongs to us, the regional parties.

As a party harbouring national ambitions, does the BRS have a say on devolution of taxes and delimitation?

We have been saying for the last 10 years that the best performing states are being penalised. For every rupee we pay to the Centre, we get back only 46 paise. I think the Central government needs to dig deep and start looking at the problem as we have recently seen several CMs complain on the issue.

States like Telangana must be incentivised by way of policy or some other measures as we are contributing and performing states. We must be rewarded with fiscal support, policy support and by other means.

With regard to delimitation, you cannot punish the southern states for successfully implementing family planning. I hope the Centre does not resort to misadventures with the number of seats, which must be increased based on economic performance.

While southern states make up 19% of the country’s population, they contribute 36% to India’s GDP. Injustice in the form of delimitation will not be tolerated and the people of the southern states will come out together against it.