In lower than two weeks, on March 28 to be exact, 84-year-old Kesava Rao referred to as it quits on the celebration and introduced “ghar wapsi” to the Congress, alongside together with his daughter Gadwal Vijayalakshmi, the current mayor of Higher Hyderabad Municipal Company (GHMC).
“I had a protracted affiliation of over 53 years with the Congress and I joined the BRS (then Telangana Rashtra Samithi) in 2013 solely to be a part of the Telangana improvement. Those that go on a pilgrimage must return to their respective houses. So, I’m additionally coming again to my very own home, the Congress,” he mentioned.
Kesava Rao, who was made a Rajya Sabha member twice through the BRS regime, had been one of many fundamental pillars of the BRS for the reason that formation of Telangana state in 2014. He was a core member of the BRS assume tank and performed a significant function in drafting the celebration’s election manifesto.
“What injustice has the BRS performed to Kesava Rao? He has loved all of the positions within the celebration. KCR made him the secretary normal of the BRS and likewise the parliamentary celebration chief. It’s unlucky that he selected to stop the celebration that gave him a lot significance,” mentioned senior BRS chief and KCR’s nephew T Harish Rao.
The veteran chief has no reply. All that he mentioned was that he wished to return to his mum or dad celebration. “I’m on the fag-end of my political profession and I wish to die as a Congress man,” he instructed reporters.
KCR was quickly to obtain one other jolt. BRS candidate for Warangal (SC) Lok Sabha constituency Dr Kadiyam Kavya, daughter of sitting BRS MLA and former deputy chief minister Kadiyam Srihari, dashed off a letter to KCR saying she was pulling out of the competition.
The handwritten letter revealed that she was upset with the newest scandals that had been rocking the celebration. “Allegations of corruption, encroachments, and telephone tapping and liquor scams have broken the celebration’s picture,” she mentioned, including that lack of coordination and cooperation amongst BRS leaders within the district prompted extra harm to the celebration.
Earlier this week, each Srihari and Kavya formally joined the Congress within the presence of AICC in-charge of Telangana affairs Deepa Das Munshi and chief minister A Revanth Reddy. “Many leaders are quitting the BRS for numerous causes. I’ve come out as there isn’t any democratic house within the celebration. Furthermore, I don’t need my daughter to lose the Warangal seat by contesting on the BRS ticket,” he mentioned.
In accordance with a PCC chief, Kavya’s identify might be finalised because the Congress candidate for a similar Warangal Lok Sabha seat.
Kavya will not be the one BRS candidate who stop the celebration after getting the celebration ticket. On March 17, sitting MP from Chevella G Ranjith Reddy additionally stop the BRS. He joined the Congress along with sitting MLA from Khairatabad Danam Nagender; 4 days later, Ranjith Reddy was given the Congress ticket for Chevella and Nagender was introduced because the Congress candidate for Secunderabad.
Just a few hours earlier than Ranjith Reddy stop the BRS, one other sitting Lok Sabha member Pasunuri Dayakar from Warangal resigned from BRS and joined the Congress.
Earlier in February and the beginning of March, three sitting Lok Sabha MPs stop the BRS — B Venkatesh Netha from Peddapalli, Pothuganti Ramulu from Nagarkurnool and B B Patil from Zaheerabad. Whereas Netha joined the Congress, Ramulu and Patil joined the Bharatiya Janata Get together (BJP).
Senior leaders go away
Thus, out of 9 MPs who had been elected on BRS tickets within the 2019 normal elections, 5 are not with the celebration. Of the remaining 4, one MP — Kotha Prabhakar Reddy from Medak resigned from his seat and gained as an MLA from Dubbak meeting constituency within the November 30 meeting elections. The remaining three MPs — Manne Srinivas Reddy from Mahabubnagar, Maloth Kavitha from Mahabubabad and Nama Nageshwar Rao from Khammam — have been retained for the 2024 elections.
The exodus isn’t simply restricted to sitting MPs and MP candidates, fairly just a few MLAs from the BRS are additionally prepared to leap ship and be part of the Congress. Kadiyam Srihari, the legislator of Station Ghanpur seat joined the Congress on March 31; many different MLAs already have in contact with the grand previous celebration, a Congress chief accustomed to the developments, mentioned.
A few of them, together with Malkajgiri MLA Malla Reddy, Kotha Prabhakar Reddy from Dubbak, Sunitha Laxma Reddy from Narsapur, G Mahipal Reddy from Patancheru, Okay Manik Rao from Zaheerabad, Tellam Venkat Rao from Bhadrachalam, Prakash Goud from Rajendra Nagar and Kale Yadaiah from Chevella have already met the CM during the last two months within the identify of discussing constituency points.
“It’s fairly widespread that dried-up leaves of a tree fall down through the winter. However new leaves sprout through the spring and the tree will regain its life inside no time. The BRS, too, will regain its power,” Harish Rao mentioned.
The most recent developments have definitely demoralised the BRS, which was already beleaguered by the humiliating defeat within the meeting elections in Telangana held on November 30. The celebration gained simply 39 seats within the 119-member state meeting, with the Congress coming to energy by successful 64 seats.
Congress reaps the advantages
PCC president and chief minister A Revanth Reddy is aware of that this determine of 64 is razor skinny, simply 4 seats greater than absolutely the majority mark. Having seen how the politics of neighbouring Maharashtra had turned within the final two years — the BJP, which managed to separate the Congress, the Nationalist Congress Get together and Shiv Sena, shaped the brand new authorities — the lately appointed chief minister from the Congress celebration doesn’t wish to take any probabilities.
He’s conscious that the BJP is able to engineering a coup towards him by forcing a break up within the Telangana Congress, too, by wooing just a few MLAs and with the assistance of the BRS, which has 39 MLAs and the BJP eight MLAs.
Lending credence to his apprehensions, the BJP leaders like parliamentary board member and Rajya Sabha MP Dr Okay Laxman, have been making statements that the Revanth Reddy authorities wouldn’t final greater than six months. “Laxman (BJP MP) says the Congress authorities is not going to be there after the Lok Sabha polls. The BJP has solely eight MLAs. How can it kind the federal government with eight MLAs? Which means BRS and BJP are unitedly conspiring to topple the federal government,” Revanth Reddy mentioned at a public rally at Manuguru lately.
Reddy has chosen to lure as many MLAs as attainable from the BRS, a method which KCR had adopted in 2014 and 2019. Within the 2014 meeting elections, the BRS (then TRS) gained solely 63 MLAs, simply three greater than absolutely the majority mark. KCR indulged in huge poaching of MLAs from different events — 12 from TDP, 5 from the Congress, three from the YSRCP, two from BSP and one from CPI — within the identify of “realignment of pro-Telangana forces.” In 2019, too, the BRS chief poached 12 out of 19 Congress MLAs, two TDP MLAs and an impartial.
“Revanth Reddy, too, desires to extend his celebration’s tally within the meeting by poaching as many MLAs from BRS as attainable. There is no such thing as a shock, if he lures two-thirds of the MLAs into the Congress,” mentioned Mohammad Zakir, a senior Telugu journalist, who performed an essential function within the Telangana motion.
In accordance with Zakir, one of many fundamental causes for the sorry state of affairs within the BRS at current is that it was, and nonetheless is, a family-centric celebration with none correct organisational construction on the grassroots degree.
When the Congress authorities has began digging out scams that allegedly befell through the BRS regime — whether or not it was irregularities in Kaleshwaram undertaking development, land encroachments, sand mafia, Dharani portal rip-off, Dalit Bandhu rip-off, phone tapping, amongst others — these leaders have rapidly distanced themselves from the celebration.
“The fault lies with KCR, who stored real Telangana activists and leaders at bay and inspired these self-centric leaders. The second the BRS misplaced energy to the Congress, they’re deserting the celebration one after the opposite. Even those that are left with the BRS now additionally should not have any love misplaced for KCR. After Lok Sabha elections, they too is not going to hesitate to leap the fence,” Zakir mentioned.