As just a month left for the assembly elections in Telangana, the Congress and the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) have stepped up their attempts to poach disgruntled and influential leaders from the rival parties to boost up their prospects in the elections.
The BRS, which was the first party to announce its list of candidates in August itself, has started luring the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders who could not make it to the list of candidates announced by them.
Though these leaders have no chance of getting any tickets in the BRS now for the present elections, the BRS leadership is luring them into the party promising them good positions and posts, if the party comes to power for a third successive term.
On Monday, three important leaders from the Congress defected to the BRS, a day after they met chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and his son K T Rama Rao and expressed their willingness to join the party.
Former minister Nagam Janardhan Reddy, who was terribly upset for being denied the ticket from Nagarkurnool assembly constituency, met the chief minister on Sunday evening, hours after KTR and finance minster T Harish Rao went to his residence and invited him to join the BRS.
Nagam defected to the BRS on Monday. The Congress gave the Nagarkurnool ticket to his rival K Damodar Reddy’s son K Rajesh Reddy. Till the other day, Nagam was the bitter critic of KCR and his government, especially in irrigation sector.
Another former MLA P Vishnuvardhan Reddy also met KCR on Sunday night and on Monday, he formally joined the BRS in the presence of Harish Rao. The Congress denied the MLA ticket to Vishnuvardhan Reddy and instead, gave the ticket to Mohammed Azharuddin in Jubilee Hills.
Vishnuvardhan Reddy won form Jubilee Hills in 2004 and 2009, but lost to MLA Maganti Gopinath in 2014 and 2018.
Similarly, senior BJP leader from Mahabubnagar and former minister P Chandra Shekhar quit the BJP and joined the BRS on Sunday. He said the BJP need not dream of capturing power in Telangana as it had lost its support base.
Another former MLA from Jadecherla in Mahabubnagar district Erra Sekhar also joined the BRS on Sunday. Sekhar is a senior leader wielding considerable influence in the erstwhile Mahabubnagar district.
On the other hand, the Congress has also been luring several BRS and BJP leaders into the party for the last few days. On Sunday, PCC president A Revanth Reddy went to the residence of former MP G Vivek Venkatswamy and invited him to join the Congress.
In all probability, Vivek, who is also an industrialist and owner of V6 channel, may be given the assembly seat from Chennur constituency in Adilabad district.
