desertions-hit-the-beleaguered-brs-camp-in-telangana-party-struggles-as-veterans-leave

After losing power in the recent assembly elections, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) is now grappling with steady desertions from its camp. 

 

Several party leaders, including veterans, are leaving the regional party which was once seen as invincible and ruled the state for two terms.

 

The latest blow came from the exit of veteran leader and Rajya Sabha member K Kesava Rao who is all set to join the Congress. 

 

Along with Rao, his daughter, and Hyderabad Municipal Corporation Mayor G Vijayalakshmi will also be joining the grand old party.

 

In fact, it will be a homecoming for the octogenarian leader as he was associated with Congress for over five decades before joining the BRS in 2013. 

 

He had served as the Congress president of the combined Andhra Pradesh.

 

“Those who go on a pilgrimage will have to return to their respective homes. 

 

So, I am also coming back to my own house, the Congress,”  Rao (84) remarked.

 

Earlier, on March 12, both Rao and his daughter held a meeting with AICC secretary in-charge of Telangana affairs Deepa Das Munshi, triggering speculations over their return to the Congress fold.

 

Subsequently, the veteran leader called on the BRS supremo K Chandrasekhar Rao at the latter’s farmhouse on Thursday and had a ‘candid chat’ with him.

 

“I discussed internal affairs of the BRS with the party president, including the arrest of Kavitha (KCR’s daughter in the Delhi liquor scam). 

 

After explaining my stand on various issues, I told him that I would resign from the party,” he said.  

 

A two-time Rajya Sabha member, Kesava Rao, who is also the BRS parliamentary party leader and secretary general, said he had joined the regional party only to become part of the development of the new state. 

 

“But it is the Congress which granted statehood for Telangana. I was elected to the Rajya Sabha in my first term only with the help of second preferential votes of the Congress MLAs,” he reminded.

 

“I was born and grew up in the Congress and I want to die as a Congressman,” he declared.

 

Jumping the ship

 

Five of the nine BRS MPs have already quit the party while several legislators are reportedly keen to switch sides. The large-scale exits have come as a big setback for the party ahead of the May 13 Lok Sabha elections.

 

The arrest of K Kavitha, KCR’s daughter, has compounded the woes of the party which was once seen as the sole architect of the Telangana statehood movement.

 

Five MPs—Pasunuri Dayakar from Warangal, G Ranjith Reddy from Chevella, Venkatesh Netha from Peddapalli, Pothuganti Ramulu from Nagarkurnool and B B Patil from Zaheerabad— have resigned from the BRS so far. While Ramulu and Patil have joined the BJP, the rest have switched over to the Congress.

 

In a fresh setback to the beleaguered party, its nominee for the Warangal Lok Sabha (SC) seat, Kadiam Kavya, daughter of party MLA Kadiam Srihari, has resigned and is all set to switch loyalty to Congress.

 

In a late-night missive to party K Chandrasekhar Rao on Thursday, Kavya said she was withdrawing from the contest from Warangal. Kavya said she was upset that the party had lost public faith following reports of its involvement in massive corruption, land encroachments, phone tapping, and Delhi liquor policy scam cases. The district TRS leaders were being very uncooperative at the constituency level, she lamented.

 

Another former BRS minister A Indrakarn Reddy is also reportedly waiting to join Congress.