In a twist fit for a political drama, BRS Huzurabad MLA Padi Kaushik Reddy has found himself in the eye of a storm, with his increasingly controversial remarks setting off alarm bells within his own party. While the media is abuzz with his inflammatory comments, particularly targeting Andhra Pradesh natives living in Hyderabad and making disrespectful remarks about women, the bigger concern is the electoral fallout that may follow. Party insiders are now wringing their hands, worried that Kaushik’s verbal tirades may cost the BRS dearly in the upcoming Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) elections.
It’s no secret that Andhra Pradesh native voters were the bedrock of the BRS’ success in 18 of the 27 Assembly seats in the Greater Hyderabad region during the previous elections. Without their support, the BRS would have been hard-pressed to even secure 20 seats in the Telangana Assembly for the November 2023 polls. Kaushik Reddy’s latest outburst, in which he called Serilingampally MLA Arekapudi Gandhi an “Andhrodu,” implying that Andhra Pradesh natives are outsiders who came to Hyderabad seeking work, has ruffled feathers in all the wrong places.
Many fear that this divisive rhetoric will alienate the very voters who have been critical to the party’s success in Greater Hyderabad. Hyderabad’s Integrated Command Control Centre (ICCC), a gleaming structure built in Banjara Hills under the previous BRS regime, appears to have turned into a monumental heada.