After the loss of a Rajya Sabha MP and six of its MLAs in recent times, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) suffered a further setback as six of the MLCs defected to the Congress in the presence of Chief Minister and PCC chief Revanth Reddy and AICC in-charge Deepa Dasmunshi.
Photo: IANS
In yet another jolt to the Bharat Rashtra Samithi, six of its members in the Telangana Legislative Council have quit the party in a late night move and joined the Congress.
After the loss of a Rajya Sabha MP and six of its MLAs in recent times, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) suffered a further setback as six of the MLCs defected to the Congress in the presence of Chief Minister and PCC chief Revanth Reddy and AICC in-charge Deepa Dasmunshi.
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The late hour was ascribed to the insistence of the MLCs to join before the new moon day which began on Friday, but they had to wait till Reddy returned from Delhi around midnight. The ceremony then took place at the Jubilee Hills residence of the chief minister.
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The six MLCs who joined the Congress included Bhanu Prasad, Baswaraj Saraiah, Dande Vithal, MS Prabhakar, Yegge Mallesham and Boggarapu Dayanand. Most of these MLCs were earlier with the Congress but had joined the BRS when it was in power in the state.
After the party lost the Assembly elections, the MLCs who won under various quotas such as elected by local bodies or MLAs and even under governor’s quota chose to return to their original party. The Congress now has 10 MLCs in the Upper House now while the BRS has come down to 25.
Even the chairman of the Council Gutha Sukhender Reddy is expected to return to the Congress soon.
The six BRS MLAs who have joined the Congress include Danam Nagender, Kadiam Srihari, Tellam Venkatarao, Pocharam Srinivas Reddy, Sanjay Kumar and Kale Yadayah. The trickle which had begun before the Lok Sabha elections turned into an exodus after the results were declared since BRS failed to win even a single MP seat.
However, putting up a brave face, the BRS leaders have been pointing fingers at the PCC chief and chief minister Revanth Reddy, predicting he will soon join the BJP after defecting from the Congress with the required number of MLAs.
In a dig at the BRS and its chief K Chandrasekhar Rao, Revanth Reddy said there was no BRS and even KCR will have to search for the party with a torch light.
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