HYDERABAD : In what should come as a rude jolt to the beleaguered BRS, its Parliamentary Party leader and secretary general K Keshava Rao on Thursday confirmed that he is getting ready to do a prodigal son.
He will be dumping the BRS along with his mayor-daughter Gadwal Vijayalaxmi and returning to Congress, his alma mater. They will join the grand old party on March 30 at Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy’s residence.
Keshava Rao’s departure from the BRS comes at a time when the pink party is fighting a losing battle to retain its leaders.
At the end of an eventful day, Keshava Rao, in a chit chat with reporters, confirmed his decision to rejoin the Congress. “I will rejoin the Congress on March 30,” he said.
Keshava Rao said that he was 84 years old now and wanted to spend his remaining years of public life in his parent party, the Congress.
However, sources close to him said that the BRS Parliamentary Party leader reportedly had a flaming row with party boss K Chandrasekhar Rao at the latter’s farmhouse where he remained unconvinced as the latter kept asking him to stay on at this hour of crisis for the party.
The BRS chief is said to have asked him why he wanted to leave when the party had treated him well, giving him a very high position, sending him to Rajya Sabha twice, and making him the parliamentary party leader. But Keshava Rao appears to have remained unmoved. KCR recalled the lift he had given to his daughter Gadwal Vijayalaxmi’s career, by making her mayor of a big city like Hyderabad.
However, Keshava Rao said that he spoke at length with KCR about the problems plaguing the BRS and remedial steps to strengthen the party. “What I spoke with KCR is an internal party matter which I would not reveal in public,” the veteran leader said.
The “encounter” between KK and KCR had reportedly generated heat as the BRS chief probably had thought KK’s decision to move on was an act of betrayal.
Will remain loyal to BRS, says KK’s son
Keshava Rao is understood to have left in a huff from the farmhouse even as KCR was persuading him to stay with him.
Indrakaran, Arvind Reddy too may desert pink party
After Keshava Rao returned to his Banjara Hills residence, former minister A Indrakaran Reddy and former Mancherial MLA G Arvind Reddy called on him. The two leaders too are toying with the idea of bidding adieu to the BRS and joining the Congress. According to sources all of them are expected to join the Congress along with Keshava Rao.
Meanwhile, Keshava Rao’s son Viplav Kumar, in a statement, said that he was not changing his plumes and that he would remain loyal to the BRS and KCR. He also mentioned that he has nothing to do with the news doing rounds that Keshava Rao and Vijayalaxmi were leaving the BRS.
Keshava Rao had joined the BRS in May 2013, when he was a Congress Rajya Sabha member. KCR then sent him to Rajya Sabha in 2014 and again in 2020. His daughter Vijayalaxmi was elected twice as a corporator on the BRS ticket and is now mayor of Hyderabad.
Approximately 10 corporators, who owe their allegiance to Vijayalaxmi, are also expected to take the leap of faith along with her.
On Thursday, Vijayalaxmi said that her decision to join the Congress would prove to be beneficial to the city as being in the ruling party would help her develop Hyderabad much faster. As Lok Sabha elections are drawing closer, Revanth Reddy is implementing a strategy to ensure an increase in his party’s footprint by inducting leaders from the BRS.
Knowing fully well that the Congress did not fare well in GHMC limits in the Assembly elections, he wants to secure the party in the capital so there is no electoral blowback in Lok Sabha constituencies.
The idea is to dent the vote share of the BRS in GHMC limits and thus deal a mortal blow to the BRS where it is very strong.
Already, Khairatabad BRS MLA Danam Nagender is in the Congress kitty now. He is the party’s official candidate for the Secunderabad Lok Sabha seat. The ghar wapsi operation beckoned the Congress leaders who had strayed to the BRS during the last one decade to return home.