Ninth BRS MLA joins Congress; Arikepudi invited into Congress by CM Revanth Reddy

Serilingampally MLA Arekapudi Gandhi and four BRS Corporators join Congress, impacting BRS MLAs' future political decisions.

As expected, Serilingampally MLA of the Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) Arekapudi Gandhi joined the Congress in the presence of Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy at his residence on July 13 morning.

Along with four Corporators of the BRS in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) also joined the Congress party. They are Serilingampally Corporator Nagender Yadav, Miyapur Corporator Uppalapati Srikanth, Chandranagar Corporator Manjula Raghunadh Reddy and Hydernagar Corporator Narne Srinivas.

Mr. Gandhi’s association with Mr. Revanth Reddy goes back to his days in the Telugu Desham Party (TDP) when both were elected as TDP MLAs in the 2014 Assembly elections after the formation of Telangana. However, Mr. Gandhi shifted to the BRS immediately along with several TDP MLAs while Mr. Revanth Reddy remained in the TDP and later joined the Congress.

Mr. Gandhi is the ninth BRS MLA to have joined the ruling party after Rajendranagar MLA Prakash Goud exited the BRS and joined the Congress a day before him. It is said that some more BRS MLAs from the city are willing to join at a later date.

Some BRS MLAs have not yet taken the step as they are waiting for the invitation from the top bosses rather than leaders at the lower levels. Some of them prefer Chief Minister Revanth Reddy to contact them directly so that they can deal with him directly. A few others have been invited to join the BJP with the condition that they should resign and contest again on a BJP ticket, a risk they are not willing to take. But their entry into Congress is being delayed as they still fear that they may not command the respect as their opponents in Congress are politically strong in their respective constituencies.

Despite strong assurances from the BRS leadership, many MLAs are in a dilemma as some of their colleagues have already left the party. The BRS chief K Chandrashekhar Rao recently called for a meeting of city MLAs to send a strong signal of his control over the party. Interestingly two MLAs who attended that meeting – Prakash Goud and Arikepudi Gandhi shifted loyalties within days.

The BRS cadre and leaders at the constituency level feel the flow of MLAs can be stemmed if Mr. KCR went to the ground with a padayatra or the bus yatra exposing the government’s failures.