K Chandrasekhar Rao’s Bharat Rashtra Samithi in Telangana is bracing for a blow as 35 of its key leaders are said to be set to join the Congress ahead of the state elections due later this year. The group, led by former BRS leader Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy and the state’s former minister Jupally Krishna Rao, have met Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi in Delhi today. Sources in the Congress said more leaders from the ruling BRS and some from the BJP will join the party at the event.
Sources said both Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy and Jupally Krishna Rao, along with their supporters, will formally join the Congress in the first week of July. The function will be held in presence of national leaders at a public meeting in Khammam, where Congress leader Bhatti Vikramarka may conclude his foot march.
Both Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy and Jupally Krishna Rao were suspended from the BRS for anti-party activities in April and have been wooed by both the BJP and the Congress. Both have their own political reasons for choosing the Congress.
For one, the Congress in Telangana got a big boost in morale and gained momentum after the victory of the party in neighbouring Karnataka.
Two, the BJP is not strong in Khammam, where the Congress, Left parties and Chandrababu Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party have traditionally been strong.
In the Munugode bypoll in November last year, the BJP candidate was defeated because the BRS and the Left parties came together.
Jupally Krishna Rao is a five-time MLA from Kollur and a former minister from Mahbubnagar, where his long-time political rival DK Aruna is a rising star in the state BJP. So going to the BJP is not an option.
Mr Reddy is seen as a strongman in Khammam, where the BRS is weak. He had managed to win as YSRCP MP in 2014, and even helped the party win three MLA seats. But he is suspected to have worked to defeat minister Puvvada Ajay Kumar in the 2018 elections and was subsequently denied MP ticket.
Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao is seeking a third term in the election due by year-end.
The popular Chief Minister has been the key figure in the formation of India’s youngest state, carved out from Andhra Pradesh in 2014.
In the 2018 election, his party won 88 of the 19 seats in the Telangana Assembly — up from 63 won in 2014.
The BRS — then known as Telangana Rashtra Samithi or TRS — had also won a 46.87 vote share against the 28.43 per cent votes received by the Congress.
Assaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM was a distant third with only seven seats.
The BJP, which only won a single seat, is trying to expand its footprint in the state.