Six BRS MLCs shock the BRS and join Congress

In yet another shock to the Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) six of its members in the Legislative Council joined the Congress late on July 4 in the presence of Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy.

In yet another shock to the Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) six of its members in the Legislative Council joined the Congress late on Thursday in the presence of Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy.

The MLCs include Dande Vittal, Bhanu Prasad, B. Dayanand, Prabhakar Rao, Egge Mallesham and Basavaraju Saraiah. The midnight development was due to the MLCs insistence that they wanted to join before Amavasya, which starts today. However, they had to wait till midnight as Chief Minister arrived late in the night from New Delhi.

Their joining would boost the Congress party’s number in the Council to 12. It already has six MLCs in the Upper House. The BRS MLCs number has been reduced to 21 now. Those who joined the Congress yesterday come from various segments. Dande Vittal is elected from Adilabad Local Body elections; Bhanu Prasad from Karimnagar Local Bodies; MS Prabhakar from Ranga Reddy local bodies; Yegge Mallesh from the MLAs quota, Boggavarapu Dayanand and Basavaraju Saraiah from the Governor’s quota.

Interestingly, most of these MLCs were originally from Congress but crossed over to the BRS when it was in power. Apart from these two more MLCs of the BRS have been sailing with the Congress for some time and they include Kuchukulla Damodar Reddy and Patnam Mahender Reddy, who was also a Minister in the second term of the BRS. With the entry of these MLCs, the Congress’ strength in the 40-member Legislative Council has increased to 12.

It is widely rumoured that Council Chairman Gutha Sukhender Reddy too might join the Congress as he has been critical of the BRS party for quite some time. Mr. Reddy’s son Amit Reddy joined the Congress before the Parliament elections after he was denied the Parliament ticket by the BRS. Mr. Sukhender Reddy was elected as MP from the Congress and joined the BRS. After completing his term he was elected as BRS MLC and made the Council Chairman.

The latest round of defections come a day after BRS senior leader and Rajya Sabha member K. Keshava Rao quit the party and joined the Congress in the presence of AICC President Mlallikarjun Kharge and others. Mr. Rao subsequently met the Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankar and tendered his resignation as MP. Already six BRS MLAs have crossed over to the Congress in the last few months.