ADILABAD: In what may come as another major jolt to an already weak Congress party in Telangana, the grand old party’s Sirpur Assembly constituency in-charge P Harish Babu has decided to join the saffron party on February 23.
According to sources close to Harish Babu, BJP Telangana in-charge Tarun Chugh and party State president Bandi Sanjay Kumar will welcome the Congress leader into the saffron fort at a public meeting which will be organised by former at the SPM Grounds in Kagaznagar town, Kumrambheem-Asifabad district.
He is the son of former Sirpur MLA Palvai Purushotham Rao, who was gunned down inside his party office by Maoists on September 15, 1999. Palvai Rajyalaxmi, wife of Purushotham Rao, became the MLA after her husband’s death.
A doctor by profession, Harish Babu has strong ground support in Sirpur-Kagaznagar Assembly constituency, and hence, his departure would undoubtedly affect the grand old party. It may be recalled that in the 2018 Assembly polls, Harish Babu had contested from Sirpur with a Congress ticket and had managed to get about 59,000 votes, though he didn’t win.
Previously, Asifabad MLA Athram Sakku, who won with a Congress ticket in 2018, too had switched loyalties to the TRS soon after the elections, leaving the grand old party in a fix. With the departure of P Harish Babu, political analysts say that the Congress is undoubtedly going to face a difficult situation in Kumrambheem-Asifabad district, where it previously had a good base.