Another jolt to BRS as ex-Telangana minister joins Congress

Hyderabad, May 2 (IANS) In another setback for the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) ahead of Lok Sabha elections, former Telangana minister Allola Indrakaran Reddy quit the party and joined the Congress on Wednesday.

Indrakaran Reddy, who was the forest minister during the BRS regime from 2018 to 2023, joined the Congress after sending his resignation to BRS president K. Chandrasekhar Rao.

Congress' in-charge for Telangana Deepa Dasmunshi welcomed him and his supporters into the party. Indrakaran Reddy's defection came less than two weeks before the Lok Sabha polls and this may give a boost to Congress in Nirmal Assembly segment, which is part of Adilabad Lok Sabha constituency.

Indrakaran Reddy suffered defeat in Nirmal at the hands of BJP's Alleti Maheshwar Reddy in the Assembly elections held in November 2023.

This is a homecoming for Indrakaran Reddy who was elected from Nirmal on the Congress ticket in 1999 and 2004.

After being denied a ticket by Congress in 2014, he contested on the ticket of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and was elected.

He later defected to BRS and became Endowments Minister in the first BRS government formed in Telangana.

The seasoned politician was also elected as MP from Adilabad on a Congress ticket in 1991 and 2008.

His switch to the Congress came as another blow to BRS, which has lost more than 20 key leaders since losing power five months ago.

As many as six MPs including general secretary K. Keshava Rao and three MLAs are among the leaders who quit BRS to join Congress or BRS.