Telangana Congress may be forced to go slow on 'poaching' BRS MLAs

Hyderabad, June 26: The furore triggered by the defection of a BRS MLA may force Telangana’s ruling Congress to go slow on poaching opposition legislators.

After senior Congress leader T. Jeevan Reddy openly voiced his unhappiness over the party admitting Bharat Rashtra Samithi MLA M. Sanjay Kumar into the party, Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy and his loyalists may have to put on hold their plans to lure more BRS MLAs.

With Jeevan Reddy threatening to resign as Member of the Legislative Council (MLC) and his supporters virtually on the warpath, the central leadership has taken note of the developments.

As several state leaders including Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka failed to pacify Jeevan Reddy, the central leadership of the Congress has summoned him to Delhi.

The AICC in-charge Deepa Dasmunshi has asked Jeevan Reddy to reach the national capital. Chief Minister Revanth Reddy is already on a visit to Delhi.

The central leadership may ask Revanth Reddy not to become aggressive in engineering defections as this could lead to further problems within the party.

After the Lok Sabha elections, the Chief Minister and his loyalists had intensified their efforts to lure more BRS MLAs to the ruling camp.

After coming to power in the state in December 2023 with 64 seats in the 119-member Assembly, the Congress successfully lured three BRS MLAs and several key leaders including BRS general secretary and Rajya Sabha member K. Kesav Rao and his daughter and Greater Hyderabad Mayor Gadwal Vijayalaxmi. Four MPs of the BRS were among those who had switched loyalties to the Congress.

During the campaign for the Lok Sabha elections, some Congress leaders predicted that after the polls the BRS will be completely denuded.

Minister for roads and buildings Komatireddy Venkat Reddy had even claimed that except BRS president K. Chandrasekhar Rao, his son K. T. Rama Rao and nephew T. Harish Rao, all BRS MLAs will quit the party and join the Congress.

After the Lok Sabha elections, in which the BRS drew a blank, Revanth Reddy and his camp stepped up their efforts to poach BRS MLAs.

The BRS leadership was caught unawares when the Chief Minister reached the house of senior leader and former Assembly speaker Pocharam Srinivas Reddy on June 21 and invited him to join the Congress.

Srinivas Reddy immediately accepted the invitation. Shaken by the sudden development, some BRS leaders rushed to Srinivas Reddy’s house and wanted to barge in but were detained by the police.

In the November 2023 election, Srinivas Reddy was elected to the Assembly from Banswada seat in Nizamabad district for the fifth consecutive term.

Even before the BRS could recover from the shock of losing Srinivas Reddy, BRS MLA from Jagtiyal M. Sanjay Kumar joined the Congress on the night of June 23.

He was the fifth BRS MLA to defect to the Congress after the latter came to power.

In the November 2023 polls, the BRS had won 39 seats in the 119-member Assembly. Its strength has now come down to 33 as it also lost the recent Secunderabad Cantonment by-election to the ruling party.

The ruling party was upbeat on the latest defections from the BRS and this was also seen as a move to counter the BJP, which consolidated itself by doubling its Lok Sabha tally to eight.

The Congress, however, faced resistance from an unexpected quarter. Jeevan Reddy, who had lost to Sanjay Kumar in Jagtial in the recent Assembly elections, was fuming over the Chief Minister admitting his rival into the party without even informing him.

Jeevan Reddy has dubbed the entry of Srinivas Reddy into the Congress as political opportunism.

He also questioned the need for encouraging defections from other parties when the Congress government is stable with 65 MLAs.

“There is no need for the Congress to allow defections into the party,” he had said.

Sanjay Kumar’s entry came as a shock to Jeevan Reddy, who announced the decision to resign as MLA.

Sanjay Kumar was Jeevan Reddy’s main opponent in Jagtial in three Assembly elections. While the Congress leader was elected in 2014, the BRS candidate emerged winner in 2018 and 2023.

Jeevan Reddy, who was first elected to the Andhra Pradesh Assembly in 1983 on a Telugu Desam Party (TDP) from Jagtial and served as excise minister in N. T. Rama Rao’s cabinet, had joined the Congress in 1984 and since then he has remained loyal to the party.

Jeevan Reddy, one of the prominent Congress leaders from north Telangana, had entered the fray in the recent Lok Sabha elections from Nizamabad but lost to the BJP’s D. Arvind.

His threat to resign as MLC is the first challenge faced by the Congress since it came to power.

Political analysts say this episode may result in the intervention of the Congress leadership, which may ask Revanth Reddy not to encourage further defections.

A section of the Congress leaders is worried over the internal problems further defections of BRS MLAs may create in various districts. The sitting legislators may feel insecure while the party leaders who suffered at the hands of the defectors may consider joining the BJP or the BRS to secure their political future.