MP polls: Telangana Congress party gets a boost from BRS rebels

Fresh off its Karnataka victory, the Telangana Congress party has stepped up its efforts to build a base in the state, by luring rebels from the Bharat Rashtra Samithi.

The Congress appears to have achieved the upper hand over the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with two ex-BRS joinees — former Khammam MP Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy and former minister Jupally Krishna Rao.

Both leaders were suspended by the BRS in April for anti-party activities, and the BJP had been making serious efforts to woo them.

This will be a big boost for the Congress, with only about six months left for Assembly elections in the state, as Srinivasa Reddy is considered an influential leader in Khammam and adjoining districts.

Political observers say that benefitting from these defections, the Congress is emerging as the main challenger to the BRS, which is likely to face an anti-incumbency mood in the public after two terms in power.

Over the first half of June, the Congress has succeeded in attracting even those rebel BRS leaders who earlier seemed to prefer the BJP.

According to political analysts, some of the leaders made up their minds after the Karnataka result, though the party's central and state leadership were also reaching out to them consistently earlier.

They also think the Congress is likely to attract more local leaders to its camp as the elections draw near. "Many dissident leaders of the BRS and even the BJP are likely to join Congress. Even those who had quit Congress a few years ago may come back," said analyst Palwai Raghavendra Reddy.

He believes that despite the defeats in 2014 and 2018 polls and its own history of defections, little inroads into by-elections and the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), and some in-fighting, the Congress remains a strong force in the state.

Unlike the BJP, whose strength seems confined to a few districts, the Congress has a presence across the state. "Some leaders might have left but the party's cadres are still active on the ground," said senior Congress leader and former minister Mohammed Ali Shabbir.

Revanth Reddy, the chief of the Telangana Congress party, claims that the alignment of these leaders entering the fold shows the growing popularity of the Congress and the power of their stated agenda. He is confident that the Congress will come to power in Telangana. "The four crore people of Telangana have been bearing the brunt of BRS excesses and misrule and are waiting for an opportunity to unseat the [K Chandrashekar Rao] government," he said.

These are not mere joinings but a wave that will consume the anti-people BRS government, he claimed.