Hyderabad: Ex-minister and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) Medchal MLA Malla Reddy is reportedly set to join the ruling Congress. The legislator, who had been at odds with Telangana chief minister and state Congress president Revanth Reddy, will likely get a ticket for his son from the Medchal Lok Sabha seat for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
It has been learnt that Malla Reddy recently met Karnataka home minister DK Shivakumar and other senior leaders in Delhi.
The MLA also runs the Malla Reddy group of institutions.
It may be noted that since the Congress won the Assembly polls last year, two buildings and other structures were demolished by the state government at the Aeronautical College and the Marri Laxman Reddy Institute of Technology and Management (MLRITM) College at Dundigal for being illegally built.
“Malla Reddy is facing cases and and his college is also facing some issues so he is under pressure. The Congress also wants to win and in seats where we face difficulty such defections should be expected,” said a Congress leader.
Rumours of Malla Reddy leaving the BRS to join the Congress gained momentum as the Lok Sabha polls got closer. The grand old party is also looking to win as many seats as it can out of the 17 from Telangana.
A BRS leader told Siasat.com that Malla Reddy’s departure is more of political vendetta by the Congress and that he is not leaving on his own. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, current Telangana Congress chief minister Revanth Reddy had contested MP from the Malkajgiri seat and won. He defeated the BRS’s Rajasekhar Reddy, who is Malla Reddy’s son-in-law. Rajasekhar Reddy is also a BRS MLA.
