Hyderabad: In yet another setback to the Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) of K Chandrashekar Rao in Telangana, the party’s MLA from Gadwal, Bandla Krishna Mohan Reddy, joined the ruling Congress last week.
He is the seventh BRS MLA to join the Congress after the party came to power in November last year. Krishna Mohan Reddy joined the Congress in the presence of Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, who is also the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president. In the Assembly elections held last year, the BRS had won 39 of 119 seats, while the Congress won 64. It rose to 65 after BRS MLA from Secunderabad Cantonment, G Lasya Nanditha, died in a road accident on February 23, and the Congress won the bypoll.
With the seven BRS MLAs switching loyalties, the Congress’s strength has risen to 72.
In the past few months, BRS MLAs Kale Yadaiah (Chevella); Pocharam Srinivas Reddy (Banswada), who was Speaker during the BRS regime; Sanjay Kumar (Jagtial); Danam Nagender (Khairatabad); Kadiam Srihari (Station Ghanpur); and Tellam Venkat Rao (Bhadrachalam) have joined the Congress.
Last week, six BRS MLCs had also joined the Congress, increasing the party’s MLC strength in the 40-member Legislative Council to 12. The MLCs include Dande Vittal, Bhanu Prasad, B Dayanand, Prabhakar Rao, Egge Mallesham and Basavaraju Saraiah.
All of them were with the Congress prior to 2014 when the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, now the BRS, came to power after the creation of a separate state of Telangana, following which they switched loyalties.
Congress leaders, including Roads and Buildings Minister Komatireddy Venkat Reddy, have claimed that several BRS MLAs are in touch with the party to switch loyalties.
Earlier this week, K Keshava Rao, a senior BRS leader and a close confidant of Chandrasheker Rao quit the party and joined the Congress. His daughter G Vijayalakshmi, the Hyderabad mayor, has also made the switch.
