Lagatar24 Desk
Hyderabad: In a major political upheaval, six members of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) state legislative council (MLCs) defected to the Congress on Friday, dealing a significant blow to former Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and his party. The defecting MLCs are T Bhanu Prasad Rao, Baswaraj Saraiah, Dande Vittal, M S Prabhakar, Yegge Mallesham, and Boggarapu Dayanand.
The group of MLCs convened at a hotel late on Thursday night, finalizing their decision to join the Congress around 11:30 PM. Shortly after, around 1:00 AM, they visited the residence of Telangana Congress president and chief minister A Revanth Reddy, who had just returned from New Delhi. The MLCs expressed their intent to join the Congress during this meeting.
The formal induction into the Congress was conducted by the chief minister in the presence of Telangana AICC in-charge Deepa Das Munshi, state revenue minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy, and other senior Congress leaders.
This defection reduces the BRS’s strength in the 40-member state legislative council from 25 to 19. Conversely, the Congress now holds 10 seats. The council also includes four nominated MLCs, two members from AIMIM, one each from BJP, PRTU, one independent, and two vacant seats.
In addition to these defections, the BRS has lost six MLAs to the Congress in the past five months, further weakening its political foothold. Prominent defectors include Danam Nagender, Kadiyam Srihari, Tellam Venkat Rao, Pocharam Srinivas Reddy, Dr. Sanjay Kumar, and Kale Yadaiah.
BRS working president and former minister KT Rama Rao condemned the defections, accusing the Congress of hypocrisy. He highlighted the Congress manifesto’s promise to amend the Tenth Schedule to automatically disqualify defecting members, contrasting it with their current actions. He pointed out that BRS Rajya Sabha member K Keshava Rao resigned after joining the Congress, questioning the integrity of Congress’s commitment to constitutional principles.
“@RahulGandhi is this how you are going to uphold the constitution? If you can’t make BRS MLAs resign, how would the nation trust that you were committed to Schedule 10 amendments as per Congress manifesto? Yeh Kaisa Nyay Patra Hain?” KT Rama Rao posted on social media.
The BRS’s recent political struggles were evident in the November 30 assembly elections, where the party won only 39 seats in the 119-member state assembly, a sharp decline from their previous 64 seats. This number further dropped to 32 following the defections, while the Congress’s strength in the assembly has increased to 71.
This political realignment highlights the shifting dynamics in Telangana’s political landscape as the state gears up for future elections and political challenges.
