Bharat Rashtra Samithi leader K.T. Rama Rao slammed the Congress party on Friday after six of its MLCs defected party to join Congress during the late hours of Thursday.
In a major setback to the opposition BRS in Telangana, six party MLCs joined the ruling Congress late on Thursday night in the presence of state Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy.
BRS continues to suffer from desertions, with several leaders, including six MLAs, leaving the party after its defeat in the Assembly polls last year. The six MLCs who switched over to the Congress are: Dande Vithal, Bhanu Prasad Rao, M.S. Prabhakar, Boggarapu Dayanand, Yegge Mallesham and Baswaraju Saraiah, Congress sources said.
AICC in-charge of party affairs in Telangana Deepa Dasmunsi and other leaders were present when the BRS MLCs joined the Congress at the residence of CM Revanth Reddy, who is also the PCC president.
BRS leader K.T. Rama Rao slammed the Congress party and its leader Rahul Gandhi for the defections. Sharing an image of Congress’s Lok Sabha election manifesto where the party has promised an amendment to the Tenth Schedule to disqualify automatically MPs and MLAs who defect from parties, Rama Rao asked in X, “BRS MP Keshava Rao tendered resignation after joining the Congress party. Welcome his decision What about the BRS MLA who defected and contested Loksabha on Congress ticket? What about half a dozen other BRS MLAs who defected to Congress?”
“@RahulGandhi is this how you are going to uphold the constitution? If you can't make BRS MLAs resign, how would nation trust that you were committed to schedule 10 amendment as per Congress manifesto? Yeh Kaisa Nyay Patra Hain?” he asked.
According to the Telangana Legislative Council website, BRS has 25 members and Congress four. There are four nominated MLCs, two members from AIMIM, one each from BJP, PRTU, and one independent, while two seats are vacant in the 40-member House.
The MLCs joined the Congress soon after Revanth Reddy returned from a two-day trip to the national capital Thursday night. With the fresh defections, Congress' strength is set to go up to 10 in the Legislative Council.
Six BRS MLAs joined the Congress after the Assembly polls last year and speculation is rife that more would switch sides to the ruling party in the days to come. BRS had won 39 of the total 119 Assembly constituencies in the elections held last year, while Congress came to power winning 64 seats.
However, BRS MLA from Secunderabad Cantonment G. Lasya Nanditha died in a road accident earlier this year. Congress won the recently held by-poll for the Secunderabad Cantonment Assembly segment. This led to an increase in its strength to 65.