KCR's high-impact introduction of BRS to Maharashtra citizens was intended to give them an alternative to vote for. And that is giving politicians with investment in political capital in India's richest state something to worry about. For example, Maharashtra heavyweight Sharad Pawar called the BRS foray into Maharashtra "worrisome", which is a significant statement because there's nobody more knowledgeable about Maharashtra politics than “Pawar Saheb”.

Sharad Pawar’s NCP leads the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) made up of the NCP, Congress and the Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray (UBT) Sena. The MVA intends to give the ruling BJP-Shinde Shiv Sena a tough fight in the Maharashtra assembly/local/Lok Sabha elections. Now, there is also KCR’s BRS to contend with and KCR is hunting for a heavyweight Maharashtra politician to lead the charge of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi into Maharashtra.

Meanwhile, Nitish Kumar & Co., appeared left stranded as the KCR convoy of 600 cars, 103 MLAs, 30 MLCs and 7 MPs zipped past, cutting a path through a sea of pink (BRS colour) into Maharashtra via a slice of Karnataka, which had recently given a mighty jolt to the Bharatiya Janata Party. KCR was back in Hyderabad a couple of days later after announcing there was a new kid in the running for Maharashtra.

The Telangana Chief Minister and his Bharat Rashtra Samithi put a lot of pressure on the police in Maharashtra because "warkaris" in their lakhs were reaching Pandharpur as part of their annual pilgrimage. KCR timed his entry into Maharashtra knowing that he wanted to make a resounding first impression. And the annual pilgrimage of "warkaris" was perfect timing, forcing Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to caution those descending on Pandharpur to keep politics out of Maharashtra!

He might as well have been talking to the wind. KCR took the warning on the chin and led his ministers, MLAs, MPs and MLCs to seek the blessings of Lord Vitthal. As many as 200,000 devotees were in the temple town at the time for the annual "wari" when KCR made his prayer to annex Maharashtra. In his head must have lurked the greater dream of the 'Conquest of the Lok Sabha'.

KCR is making a determined bid to go national and enter Delhi at the head of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi, a political party formed just for that Mission Impossible. Doing so, KCR is taking aim at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a bunch of Opposition stalwarts including Rahul Gandhi who on Tuesday (June 27) was squatting on a low stool – a mechanic in a Karol Bagh garage, continuing from where he had left the Bharat Jodo Yatra. KCR is now 'Numero Uno' opposition rival to Rahul Gandhi for the prime ministerial stakes and KCR isn’t bothered by opposition parties’ conclaves; he is on a binge of his own.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP will welcome this diversion as “more the merrier” suits them. Third-time running for PM, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is less assured than he was when he was second-time running in 2019. And helping Modi get his spirits up is the Opposition’s failure to choose a ‘PM Face’. And in this, KCR is the major stumbling block and they have begun to say that the BRS is the ‘B’ or ‘C’ team of the BJP.

KCR calls this all bunkum, but his rivals have started asking where did all the money come from for KCR to mount such an extravagant car-convoy into Maharashtra and back – who is KCR’s financier? Not just the cars and the fuel to drive them, but also the “220 rooms” in four/five luxury hotels of Solapur city. The grapevine says close relatives of KCR booked the rooms and made the local arrangements.

Apparently, for all his slender frame, KCR makes it up with the breadth and depth of his unlimited finances. Mind you, the BRS will be mounting a nationwide ambush of the BJP/ Congress/ TMC/ Samajwadi Party/ MVA/ Communist parties and it won’t be peanuts in exchange. The Pandharpur temple administration had made sure KCR and his cavalcade of BRS leaders got "VIP Darshan" instead of the ordinary "Mukh Darshan" for the ornery folk of Maharashtra.

And that, too, costs heavy doses of money. The BRS had plans to drop tonnes of rose petals on the “warkaris” using three helicopters. But Shinde’s police denied KCR’s underlings this extra-extravaganza. (IPA Service)