Hyderabad: Ruling Congress party in Telangana received a boost ahead of Lok Sabha elections with five leaders of main Opposition Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) including a former mayor of Hyderabad and chairperson of Vikarabad Zilla Parishad joining its ranks on Friday.
Vikarabad Zilla Parishad chairperson P Suneetha Mahender Reddy, former mayor Bonthu Rammohan and his wife and corporator Bonthu Sridevi joined Congress party in the presence of AICC in-charge Deepadas Munshi.
Kancharla Chandarsekhar Reddy and Banoth Ramana Naik also switched loyalties to the ruling party. They all called on Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy.
Suneetha Reddy was accompanied by her husband and former minister P Mahender Reddy, who is also likely to join the Congress party. Their joining is likely to strengthen the Congress party in Greater Hyderabad and surroundings as it drew a blank in the region in the recent Assembly elections.
With Lok Sabha elections a few weeks away, some more BRS leaders are planning to switch loyalties to the ruling party to get tickets. Political analysts say the situation is a repeat of 2014 when TRS (now BRS) had lured several leaders from Congress and TDP from Hyderabad and surrounding districts into its fold as the party had not done well in the Assembly polls in state capital and adjoining constituencies.
Bonthu Rammohan had also met Revanth Reddy on February 11. He is expecting a ticket from Malkajgiri Lok Sabha constituency in the forthcoming elections. In 2019, Revanth Reddy was elected to Lok Sabha from Malkajgiri. Rammohan’s meeting with Revanth Reddy came a couple of days after BRS corporator and former deputy mayor Baba Fasihuddin joined the Congress party. Rammohan and Fasihuddin were mayor and deputy mayor respectively from 2016 to 2021.
