A day after BRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao claimed that 20 Congress MLAs were ready to quit the party and join him, his party MLA Prakash Goud from Rajendranagar met Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy. He is expected to join the Congress soon with his supporters.
Another former MP D Ravindra Naik who had been the BJP candidate from Yellandu constituency in Assembly elections but lost, also joined the Congress in the presence of the chief minister.
Prakash Goud will be the third BRS MLA to join the Congress after Danam Nagender and Kadiyam Srihari. While Nagender was given the Congress ticket to fight the elections from Secunderabad Parliamentary constituency against BJP’s G Kishan Reddy, Kadiyam Srihari’s daughter Kavya got the Congress ticket from Warangal Lok Sabha seat.
The BRS is fighting to keep itself relevant in the Lok Sabha polls with both the Congress and the BJP poaching its leaders with impunity. However, Rao who is popularly known as KCR claimed that the Congress government in Telangana will be short lived and leaders were in touch with him, ready to jump ship. He also wondered if the BJP would allow a government with just 64 MLAs to survive when it had tried to dislodge his government with 104 MLAs.
Meanwhile, BRS working president KT Rama Rao lashed out at the Congress government urging the youth to teach them a lesson. Congress had promised to issue a job calendar from 1 February which they have failed, alleged KT Rama Rao while claiming that the 30,000 jobs which Congress claimed to have given, were actually filled during BRS reign.
He said though Priyanka Gandhi had promised that an allowance of Rs 4000 will be given to the unemployed youths, deputy chief minister Bhatti Vikramarka later denied it. The government also raised the exam fee for teachers’ selection examination, TET (Teachers’ Eligibility Test) from Rs 400 to Rs 2000, Rao added.