Hyderabad: Bhadrachalam Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLA Tellam Venkat Rao joined the Congress party on Sunday, April 7, adding to the list of massive defections from the BRS in the recent past.
He joined the party officially in the presence of Telangana chief minister A Revanth Reddy and minister Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy.
He is the third sitting MLA from BRS to join Congress after Khairatabad MLA Danam Nagendar and Station Ghanpur MLA Kadiyam Srihari.
Rumours of Rao joining the grand old party emerged first at the end of 2023 after the Congress party came to power after defeating the BRS.
A close aide to minister Ponguleti, Tellam Venkat Rao had joined the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) in 2014. He contested the 2018 general elections from the Bhadrachalam assembly constituency on a BRS ticket and lost to Congress’ Podem Veeraiah. Before joining BRS in 2014, he contested from Mahbubabad Lok Sabha on a YSRCP ticket.
In the 2023 Assembly polls, he defeated Congress’ Podem Veeraiah. Rao polled 53252 votes compared to Podem Veeraiah’s 47533.
Telangana is going to the ballot in the fourth phase of the Lok Sabha polls on May 13 as per the schedule released by the Election Commission of India.
