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Congress Targets 17 BRS MLA Defections
- Congress Defection Strategy:
- The Telangana Congress, led by Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, is aiming to secure a total of 26 Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLAs’ defections before the upcoming budget session.
- So far, 10 legislators have switched sides, with 17 more needed to invoke the anti-defection law, which requires two-thirds of a party’s legislature to defect to avoid by-elections.
- Targeted MLAs:
- Senior Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) leaders suggest that BRS MLAs like Maganti Gopinath, former minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav, and Amberpet MLA Kaleru Venkatesh are next in line to defect.
- The most recent BRS MLA to join the Congress was Serilingampally MLA Arekapudi Gandhi, along with several local corporators.
- Strategic Importance:
- The Congress aims to strengthen its position in the Greater Hyderabad region, having failed to win any of the 24 seats in the GHMC area during the 2023 Assembly elections.
- In the 2023 elections, Congress won 64 out of 119 seats, while BRS secured 39, BJP won 8, and AIMIM retained 7 seats.
- Defection Timeline:
- Defections began in the lead-up to the Lok Sabha elections, with Khairatabad MLA Danam Nagender among the first to switch. Notably, Nagender was originally a long-time Congress member who had defected to the BRS.
- Impact on BRS Leadership:
- Senior BRS leaders, including former deputy chief minister Kadiam Srihari and K Keshava Rao, have also left for Congress, dealing a significant blow to BRS leader K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR).
- Political Landscape:
- In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Congress and BJP each won eight seats, while BRS did not secure any. The BJP’s rise in Telangana has raised concerns about increasing communalism and the splitting of secular votes between Congress and BRS.
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Congress’s Challenge:
- It remains to be seen whether Revanth Reddy can attract the remaining 17 BRS MLAs to Congress within the next 10 days before the budget session begins.
