The opposition Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) in Telangana is reportedly going all out to target the Congress government headed by Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy through an aggressive media campaign.
According to sources, the BRS, spearheaded by its working president K T Rama Rao, has already been funding several digital and social media platforms whose primary task is to continuously publish stories against the Revanth Reddy government and personally target the chief minister.
The BRS already has its own newspapers, Namasthe Telangana and Telangana Today, besides the television channel T News. There are also reports that the party has been extending financial assistance to some loss-making local television channels so that they can launch an aggressive campaign against the Congress government.
According to the latest reports, the BRS recently acquired the Hyderabad franchise of the 160-year-old English daily The Pioneer, which had until now been under the control of a local journalist.
While sources claim that KTR acquired it for around Rs 120 crore, his sister Kalvakuntla Kavitha publicly alleged that he had purchased the newspaper for Rs 188 crore. However, there has been no official confirmation or denial from either the newspaper management or the BRS.
At the same time, several journalists and media professionals who were previously associated with organisations perceived to be close to the BRS leadership are reportedly planning to launch new media ventures.
Sources said two senior journalists who were earlier associated with Namasthe Telangana and T News, and are believed to be close to BRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao, are planning to relaunch a newspaper that gave tough competition to Eenadu in the late 1980s. Recruitment for the proposed daily is reportedly already underway.
Another group, reportedly led by a former Telangana Press Academy chairman along with a former editor of Andhra Jyothy, is said to be exploring the launch of a digital media platform with active financial support from the BRS.
Analysts say these proposed ventures could seek to project themselves as “neutral” media platforms while indirectly serving the interests of the BRS.
In addition to these proposed ventures, several YouTube channels and news websites associated with individuals linked to the former BRS establishment have reportedly already been launched.
