BRS MLA joins Congress ahead of Lok Sabha polls

Hyderabad: Ahead of Lok Sabha elections, BRS MLA Danam Nagender quit the party on Sunday and joined the Congress.

Danam Nagender is the first BRS MLA to join Congress party after the latter came to power.

It was homecoming for Danam Nagender, who had served as a minister in the Congress government in united Andhra Pradesh from 2009 to 2014.

He had joined TRS (now BRS) in 2018 and was elected to the Assembly from Khairatabad. He retained the seat in the recent elections.

Ranjith Reddy, the MP from Chevella and Nagender, who was elected to Assembly recently from Khairatabad constituency in Hyderabad, joined the Congress party in the presence of Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy and AICC in-charge for Telangana Deepa Dasmunshi.

The two BRS leaders joined the Congress on a day when it completed 100 days in power.

The BRS, which lost power to Congress after ruling the state for 10 years, had won 39 seats in the 119-member Assembly.

Ranjith Reddy was "unhappy" with the party leadership after he was denied renomination from Chevella seat.

In his resignation letter to BRS president K. Chandrasekhar Rao, Ranjith Reddy wrote that due to current political circumstances in the state, he came to the difficult decision to pursue an alternative path.

The BRS has already announced Kasani Gnaneshwar Mudiraj as its candidate for Chevella, a constituency comprising Assembly segments around Hyderabad. He had resigned from Telugu Desam Party (TDP) to join BRS in November last year ahead of the Assembly elections.

The Congress party had cleared the name of Patnam Sunitha Reddy, wife of former minister Patnam Mahender Reddy, from Chevella but her candidature was withheld at the last minute.

Sunitha Reddy, chairperson of Vikarabad Zilla Parishad, had resigned from BRS and joined the Congress in February.

Ranjith Reddy is the fifth sitting MP of BRS to switch loyalties either to Congress or BJP during the last one month.

He is the second BRS MP to quit the party and join the ruling party in as many days.