In the last few weeks, several legislators from Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) met Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president and chief minister A Revanth Reddy and posed for photographs.
Among those who met Revanth Reddy were: Malkajgiri MLA Ch Malla Reddy, Kotha Prabhakar Reddy from Dubbak, Sunitha Laxma Reddy from Narsapur, G Mahipal Reddy from Patancheru, K Manik Rao from Zaheerabad, Tellam Venkat Rao from Bhadrachalam, Prakash Goud from Rajendra Nagar and Kale Yadaiah from Chevella.
However, none of them openly said he or she would be joining the Congress. They only said they had met the chief minister for discussing constituency issues and seeking funds.
However, only Khairatabad MLA Danam Nagender officially joined the Congress party along with Chevella MP G Ranjith Reddy. Earlier, another MP Pasunuri Dayakar from Warangal also joined the Congress officially.
While the joining of the MPs do not matter much for the BRS because Lok Sabha elections are due in the next few weeks, but the defection of the MLAs will certainly be a big setback for the BRS. At least 15-16 BRS MLAs out of 39 are said to be ready to jump into the ruling party.
So, within hours of Nagender joining the Congress, the BRS leaders submitted a petition to state assembly speaker G Prasada Rao seeking disqualification of Danam Nagender for defying the anti-defection law.
Why did Danam take the risk? The answer came from Delhi on Tuesday. The high command is learnt to have cleared his name as the MP candidate from Secunderabad Lok Sabha constituency. His name is likely to be announced later on Wednesday, sources said.
Apart from Nagender for Secunderabad, the Congress high command has finalised the names of Ranjith Reddy (Chevella), Patnam Sunitha Mahender Reddy (Malkajgiri), Dr Sumalatha (Adilabad), Gaddam Vamsi Krishna (Peddapalli) and Mallu Ravi (Nagarkurnool).
Once the list is out, Nagender will resign from his assembly seat and it will also go to polls along with the general elections in May.
“Since he was given the assurance that he would be selected for Secunderabad MP seat, Nagender openly joined the Congress; and he would have to quit his MLA seat anyway,” sources said.
