The announcement of party tickets by Bharat Rashtra Samithi president and Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao a couple of days ago for the upcoming assembly elections in the state has left several BRS leaders in a state of disgruntlement.
Even those leaders from other parties who were planning to join the BRS expecting the party tickets were taken by surprise with the sudden announcement of the candidates’ list with 95 per cent of sitting MLAs getting renominated.
Such leaders have now been left with only two options: to join either the Congress or the Bharatiya Janata Party. But it appears they are preferring to join the Congress, which was the parent party to most of them.
For example, former MLA from Mahabubnagar Seetha Dayakar Reddy, who had been with the Telugu Desam Party along with her husband late Kothakota Dayakar Reddy, was contemplating joining the BRS after the death of her husband a few months ago.
She was lobbying for the BRS ticket from Devarakadra constituency. However, with the BRS announcing the candidates, Seetha Dayakar Reddy realised that it is better to join the Congress, rather than the BJP.
Seetha, who had a long stint in Mahabubnagar politics and worked as the zilla parishad chairperson in the past, will definitely be a plus point for the Congress, which is looking for strong candidates from Mahabubnagar.
Similarly, former minister A Chandrasekhar, who had been in the Congress and later defected to the BRS and finally to the BJP, also returned to the Congress after quitting the saffron party on Wednesday.
He, along with his followers, joined the Congress in the presence of PCC president A Revanth Reddy and AICC in-charge of Telangana Manikrao Thakre at Gandhi Bhavan.
Similarly, former MLC T Santosh Kumar also announced his resignation from the primary membership of BRS and decided to return to the Congress party. He said if given the ticket, he would contest from the Karimnagar assembly constituency in the ensuing elections.
Santosh was an active Congress supporter and worked as DCC president of integrated Karimnagar and was instrumental in the construction of the party office.
The Congress party had nominated him as MLC with the support of then Minister D Sridhar Babu and then Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, but in 2018, he defected to the BRS, but has been feeling neglected since then.