HYDERABAD: A day after making an appearance at the Congress’ Jana Jatara Sabha, during which senior party leader Rahul Gandhi strongly advocated for amending the 10th Schedule of the Constitution (anti-defection related provisions), BRS MLA Tellam Venkata Rao on Sunday joined the grand old party in the presence of Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy. Venkata Rao is the third pink party MLA to join the Congress.
Revenue Minister Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy draped a shawl and welcomed the Bhadrachalam MLA and his followers. Soon after the Assembly elections, Venkata Rao had called on the chief minister on the pretext of constituency development.
Earlier, BRS MLAs Danam Nagender and Kadiyam Srihari had also shifted to the grand old party.
It must be noted that the Congress, in its manifesto released on Saturday, said, “We promise to amend the 10th Schedule of the Constitution and make defection (leaving the original party on which the MLA or MP was elected) an automatic disqualification of the membership in the Assembly or Parliament.”
Meanwhile, the Congress is fielding Khairatabad MLA Danam Nagender, elected on a BRS ticket, from the Secunderabad Lok Sabha segment. On the other hand, it has also announced a ticket for Kadiyam Kavya, the daughter of Station Ghanpur MLA Kadiyam Srihari, who also won on a BRS ticket.
While it was expected that a major chunk of BRS MLAs would join the ruling party, it was surprising that just one legislator has joined the party. However, sources said more inductions are likely to take place in the near future.
Speaking to TNIE, a party functionary opined that the party may want to keep the momentum going until the conclusion of the Lok Sabha elections as a strategic move to weaken the Opposition BRS.
Incidentally, Venkata Rao’s joining comes a day after Irrigation and Civil Supplies Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy indicated that 30 of the 39 elected BRS MLAs would join the Congress.
It may be mentioned here that pink party MPs like Ranjith Reddy, K Keshava Rao, P Dayakar and Venkatesh Neta have already joined the grand old party. Hyderabad Mayor Gadwal Vijayalaxmi and her deputy Mothe Srilatha Reddy have also joined the Congress recently.