BRS’ woes spill over as yet another MP quits, joins Cong.
The cup of woes of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) appears to be spilling over continuously ever since the party has been voted out of power in December last, with one leader or the other quitting the party almost every day either at State level or in districts in search of greener pastures in the Congress or Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The quitting of Chevella MP G. Ranjith Reddy to join the Congress along with Khairatabad MLA Danam Nagender on Sunday takes the number of sitting
MPs of BRS leaving the party officially in over a month to 5, out of a total of 9. The BRS MPs B. Venkatesh Netha (Peddapalli), P. Ramulu (Nagarkurnool), B.B. Patil (Zaheerabad) and P.
Dayakar (Warangal) had deserted the party before Mr. Ranjith Reddy. Mr. Venkatesh and Mr. Dayakar have joined the Congress, while Mr. Ramulu and Mr. Patil joined BJP.
Of the remaining four, three have been retained by the party leadership to contest their seats again – N. Nageswara Rao (Khammam), M. Kavitha (Mahabubabad) and M. Srinivas Reddy (Mahabubnagar), while K. Prabhakar Reddy (Medak) has resigned as MP after getting elected to the Assembly from Dubbak constituency.
Not only the sitting MPs but nearly a dozen of the BRS MLAs have also met either the Chief Minister or other key leaders of the Congress setting off a speculation that they too are in line to leave the party “at a right time” to avoid attracting the provisions of Anti
Defection Law. The law specified that the elected members of a party could avoid disqualification, if at least the twothirds of them decide to leave the party.
The BRS has a tally of 39, including the Secunderabad Catonment seat falling vacant after newlyelected G. Lasya Nanditha died in a road accident last month. Byelection to the seat is scheduled to be conducted along with the Lok Sabha polls.
In case, the BRS MLAs want to escape the AntiDefection Law provisions and disqualification, at least 26 members need to cross the fence or else they could remain with the party on whose symbol they are elected technically (name sake) but side with the party they are migrating to for all practical purposes, a political observer explained.
Several other senior leaders, former MLAs who lost the recent Assembly election and former MPs have also decided to pursue an alternative political path.
Unfazed by the desertions, the BRS leadership is making all efforts to fight the Lok Sabha polls with enthusiasm stating that “the party has been into such situations several times since its inception.