Exodus of BRS leaders to Congress begins

Hyderabad: Mass exodus of BRS leaders to the ruling Congress is on the cards. Former minister and BRS MLC P Mahendar Reddy, his wife and Vikarabad ZP Chairperson Sunitha Reddy, former GHMC Mayor B Rammohan, senior BRS leader and film star Allu Arjun’s father- in -law K Chandrashekhar Reddy joined Congress party in the presence of Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy in the Assembly premises on Friday.

Accompanied by his supporters, Prof Ramana Naik also quit the BRS and switched loyalties to Congress. Before meeting the CM, all the senior BRS leaders called on Telangana Congress in-charge and AICC general secretary Deepa Dasmunshi at Gandhi Bhavan in Hyderabad on Friday. She offered party scarves to the newly joined Congress leaders.

“The list for joining Congress is quite long. Soon after the Election Commission announces the schedule for the Lok Sabha elections, many important opposition leaders will join the Congress party,” she said.

Revanth Reddy, who is also the TPCC president, prepared a strategy to poach senior BRS leaders, MLAs and MPs before the Lok Sabha elections. The CM was confident of winning at least 10 Lok Sabha seats and it required a lot of support for Congress at the ground level. Poaching would help the Congress to emerge strong ahead of the elections, Congress leaders claim.

It is learnt that Revanth was holding secret talks with some senior BRS leaders to invite them into the party. If his efforts succeed, they would join the party at a huge public meeting soon.

Congress is focusing more on North Telangana districts where it is weak. The big challenge before the Congress is to contain the growth of BJP in this part and see that the BRS which is also strong here loses its strength.

Some sitting MLAs from old Medak district had already met Revanth. BRS MP from Peddapalli Venkatesh joined the Congress in the presence of AICC leaders in New Delhi recently.