Telangana Congress Targets Defections from BRS Ahead of Budget Session
Hyderabad: The Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) is actively pursuing defections from the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), aiming to prevent by-elections by securing a total of 26 MLAs before the forthcoming Budget session. Currently, 10 legislators have crossed over, with an additional 17 needed to trigger anti-defection laws. This mandate requires two-thirds of a party’s legislature to defect to avoid mandatory resignations upon switching sides.
Senior TPCC sources indicate that prominent BRS figures such as Maganti Gopinath, former minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav, and Amberpet MLA Kaleru Venkatesh are poised to defect next. Recent additions to the Congress include Serilingampally MLA Arekapudi Gandhi, along with several corporators from Serilingampally, Miyapur, Chandanagar, and Hydernagar.
Beyond circumventing anti-defection provisions, the Congress aims to bolster its presence in Greater Hyderabad, where it failed to secure any of the 24 seats in the 2023 Assembly elections. The party currently holds 64 seats, compared to BRS’s 39, with the BJP claiming 8 seats and AIMIM retaining 7 in the Old City.
Recent defections began preceding the Lok Sabha elections, notably with Khairatabad MLA Danam Nagender’s formal resignation. Nagender, a former Congress leader, switched allegiance after BRS’s victories in the 2014 and 2018 Telangana Assembly elections under ex-Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao.
Senior BRS leaders, including ex-Deputy Chief Minister Kadiam Srihari and K Keshava Rao, have further unsettled KCR’s leadership by defecting to the Congress. In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, both Congress and BJP secured 8 seats each, while BRS failed to win any.
Observers note BJP’s escalating influence in Telangana, raising concerns over potential communal polarization amidst shifting political dynamics. However, TPCC remains focused on consolidating secular votes divided between Congress and BRS.
As Chief Minister Revanth Reddy leads the charge, the Congress faces a critical countdown to sway 17 more BRS MLAs within 10 days before the budget session commences.
