In a setback to the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, four leaders of the party on Sunday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the national capital.
Former MPs Sitaram Naik and Godam Nagesh, and ex-legislators S. Saidi Reddy and Jalgam Venkat Rao joined the BJP at the party headquarters in Delhi in the presence of BJP general secretary & in-charge of Telangana, Tarun Chugh.
Union Minister G. Kishan Reddy -- the Telangana unit BJP president, had called on Sitaram Naik in Hanamkonda on Friday and invited him to join BJP.
Naik was upset with the BRS leadership after it denied him a ticket from Mahabubabad and once again fielded sitting MP Maloth Kavitha.
The BJP has reportedly assured to field Sitaram Naik from Mahabubabad.
Nagesh is also likely to be fielded from Adilabad, where the BJP may drop sitting MP Soyam Bapu Rao.
In 2019, Nagesh lost the election to Bapu Rao.
Saidi Reddy, who had won Huzurnagar Assembly seat in the by-election but suffered defeat in the recent polls, is likely to get a BJP ticket from Nalgonda constituency. Jalgam Venkat Rao, a key BRS leader from Khammam district who was denied ticket in recent Assembly elections, may also be fielded by BJP in Lok Sabha polls. BJP national OBC morcha president K. Laxman, MLA
A. Maheshwar Reddy and P. Sudhakar Reddy were also present.
Laxman later told mediapersons that the latest political development shows that BJP is gaining further strength in Telangana.
He predicted that after Lok Sabha elections, Telangana will also move towards a double-engine government.
He exuded confidence that the BJP would win more Lok Sabha seats from in South India than in the past.
The BJP leader claimed that BRS is getting emptied while Congress is getting decimated.
Laxman said people rejected Congress across the country due to family rule and corruption.
He also said that, like the Congress party, leaders of regional parties like BRS, RJD and Samajwadi Party were working for their family members.
Meanwhile, BJP national vice president D.K. Aruna exuded confidence that would win 12 out of 17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana.
She urged the BJP workers to work hard for the party's victory in the Lok Sabha polls.