Hyderabad: Ever since its loss to the Congress in last year’s Assembly elections, the K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR)-led Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) has been losing its legislators to the grand old party. So far seven MLAs and six MLCs have defected from the BRS, which still has 30 MLAs. The latest one to go was BRS Gadwal MLA Bandla Krishnamohan Reddy.
However, the defections are expected, as KCR during his two terms as chief minister engineered the same, and it seems like the Congress is giving him a taste of his own medicine. A senior leader from the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) said that a few more BRS MLAs are also likely to defect in a week’s time. Another TPCC member from Hyderabad also told Siasat.com that in total about 25 MLAs are going to shift sides.
“Uppal MLA Laxma Reddy is likely to jump ship next and talks are also on with ex-minister and Sanathnagar MLA Talasani Srinivas Yadav. We were waiting for the Lok Sabha elections to finish before we started taking in MLAs. Now you will see them one by one switching sides,” said a TPCC leader from Hyderabad. If 25 or more BRS MLAs defect, then the anti-defection law, which requires legislators to quit their seats when they defect, will not apply. If over two-thirds of a party’s legislature defects, then the rule to quit the seats does not apply.
KCR’s BRS (then TRS) won the Telangana Assembly polls first in 2014, the same year after the state was formed. His party won 63 seats, while the Congress, Telugu Desam party (TDP), YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) bagged 21, 15 and 3 seats. The AIMIM retained its 7 MLAs in Hyderabad as usual. Soon after, KCR managed to get most of the opposition MLAs to join the BRS.
Similarly, in spite of winning 88 out of 119 seats in the 2018 Telangana Assembly elections, KCR still managed to get 12 out of 19 MLAs from the Congress to defect, virtually ending the opposition in the Assembly. Hence, the Congress now pulling BRS MLAs towards it is only to be expected. More importantly, it is also important for state Congress president and chief minister Revanth Reddy as defections will increase his party’s numbers and avoid any situation that can destabilise his government.
BRS leaders who did not want to be quoted, however said that he defections are to be expected and that the party will focus on organisational strength now instead. When asked if any big names are expected to quit soon, BRS leaders however kept mum.
A political analyst who did not want to be quoted said that defections are to be expected, as KCR had done the same during his two terms. ‘Moreover, the Congress is also looking to weaken the BRS significantly in the state, which in turn might actually help the BJP which is also growing in Telangana. We have to see how KCR deals with these losses,” he added.
