Six Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) legislators joined the ruling Congress in Telangana in the early hours of Friday, dealing yet another major setback to the regional outfit led by former chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao.
Before joining the Congress, the six BRS members of legislative council (MLCs) — T Bhanu Prasad Rao, Baswaraj Saraiah, Dande Vittal, MS Prabhakar, Yegge Mallesham and Boggarapu Dayanand — met at a hotel in Hyderabad around 11.30 pm on Thursday.
“At around 1 am [Friday], they went to the residence of Telangana Congress president and chief minister A Revanth Reddy, who [had] just returned from New Delhi, and expressed their interest in joining the party,” a Congress leader familiar with the development said.
The MLCs were formally inducted into the Congress by Reddy at his residence in the presence of AICC in-charge of affairs in Telangana Deepa Dasmunsi, state revenue minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy and other senior party leaders.
Read Here: Both Congress and BJP make gains at cost of BRS in Telangana
With the latest defections, the strength of the Congress in the 40-member legislative council is likely to go up to 10, while the BRS’s tally came down from 25 to 19. There are four nominated MLCs, two members from AIMIM, one each from the BJP, PRTU, and one independent, while two seats are vacant in the Upper House of the state legislature.
Earlier, six BRS MLAs — Danam Nagender, Kadiyam Srihari, Tellam Venkat Rao, Pocharam Srinivas Reddy, Dr Sanjay Kumar and Kale Yadaiah — had joined the Congress after the assembly polls last year and speculation is rife that more would switch sides to the ruling party in the coming days.
The BRS, which had been in power since the formation of the state in 2014, won only 39 of the total 119 assembly constituencies in the November 30 state polls, while Congress came to power winning 64 seats. Its number fell down to 38, following the death of G Lasya Nanditha, its MLA from Secunderabad Cantonment, died in a road accident in February. The Congress won the bypoll to the assembly seat.
Later, the BRS tally came down further to 32 with the defection of its six MLAs to the Congress while the strength of the ruling party has gone up to 71.
Read Here: KCR slams Justice Reddy Commission probe into alleged irregularities in power sector during BRS regime
BRS working president and former minister KT Rama Rao accused the Congress of engineering the defections from his party. Lashing out at the ruling party, KTR — as the BRS leader is popularly known — reminded the Congress of its promise in the poll manifesto that said the party would amend the Tenth Schedule of Constitution to automatically disqualify the elected members who defect from one party to another.
“@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? (What kind of Nyay Patra is this?)” KTR posted on X.
He further pointed out that BRS leader K Keshava Rao tendered his resignation from the Rajya Sabha after joining the Congress on Wednesday. “We welcome his decision. What about the BRS MLA who defected and contested Lok Sabha on Congress ticket? What about half a dozen other BRS MLAs who defected to Congress?” KTR said on X.
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