The fate of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi is proving the proverb, ‘what goes around, comes around, to be true. It was recently when the BRS suffered a humiliating defeat in the assembly elections, and now the party is grappling with desertions from its camp.
Looking back through the annals of history, nearly five years ago, BRS had adopted an aggressive poaching strategy to weaken the opposition camp. It seems that the ghost from the past has come back to haunt the party.
Basking in the glory of securing a second term in office in the December 2018 assembly polls, the BRS had lured a big chunk of the opposition Congress legislators to its camp, virtually decimating the opposition.
In a similar vein, the Congress, which stormed to power in the recently-concluded assembly polls, has become a hot destination for the political migrants from the BRS.
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, daughter of the former Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, has compounded the woes of the party which was once seen as an invincible force in the state.
Five Member of Parliament — Pasunuri Dayakar from Warangal, G Ranjith Reddy from Chevella, Venkatesh Netha from Peddapalli, Pothuganti Ramulu from Nagarkurnool and BB Patil from Zaheerabad — have resigned from the BRS. While Ramulu and Patil have joined the Bharatiya Janata Party, the rest have switched over to the Congress.
The city BRS MLA D Nagender, too, has quit and joined the Congress in the presence of Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and AICC in-charge of Telangana affairs Deepa Das Munshi.
In the November assembly polls, the BRS had managed to win 39 seats in the 119-member Assembly, while Congress bagged 65 seats. It is expected that at least eight BRS MLAs are keen to switch over to the ruling party in future.
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