Leaders continue to quit BRS

Even as the Lok Sabha elections are fast approaching, leaders from Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) continue to quit the party and join the ruling Congress in Telangana.

BRS MLA from Bhadrachalam, Tellam Venkat Rao, joined the Congress in the presence of Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and revenue minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy. He is the third MLA from BRS to join Congress in less than a month.

Venkat Rao was elected from Bhadrachalam in the recent Assembly elections. This was the only seat held by BRS among the 10 seats in Khammam district.

Interestingly, Venkat Rao had quit BRS and joined Congress along with Srinivas Reddy in July last year. He, however, later returned to BRS after the Congress party fielded the sitting MLA from Bhadrachalam, Podem Veeraiah. Venkat Rao, who contested on a BRS ticket, defeated Podem Veeaiah of Congress by 5,719 votes.

Earlier, former ministers D Nagender and Kadiyam Srihari, Hyderabad Mayor Gadwal Vijayalakshmi joined the ruling party. The BRS has also lost five sitting MPs and several other leaders to either Congress or the BJP during the last 2-3 months.