Congress Targets City BRS for Two-Third Mark

HYDERABAD: The launch of the Congress’ Maha Lakshmi free bus travel scheme and enhanced Rajiv Aarogyasri medical aid by city BRS MLAs Talasani Srinivas Yadav and Danam Nagendar has triggered speculation that the duo may join the  Congress, which is seeking to strengthen its hand ahead of next year’s Lok Sabha elections and also is working to eventually secure a two-third majority in the House.

The Congress has 64 MLAs and the two-third mark stands at 80. The ruling party needs 16 more MLAs to reach the magic figure, and it has the support of the lone CPI MLA.

It has been done before.

In 2015, 12 TD MLAs joined the BRS, resulting in merger of the legislature parties of the two. In 2019, 12 Congress MLAs joined the BRS, again leading to the merger of the legislature parties. The Congress is now attempting a repeat with the BRS, which has 39 MLAs.

Speculation is rife that the Congress is in touch with 17 BRS MLAs.
Apart from Srinivas Yadav and Nagendar, there is also the case of Dr Tellam Venkata Rao, BRS Bhadrachalam MLA, who reportedly announced support for the Congress on December 3, Counting Day. He denied it the next day. On Sunday, however, he met with minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy and Tummala Nageswara Rao who were in Khamman.

The Congress has no representation in the city, with the BRS making a clean sweep, except for Old City, where the AIMIM retained its seven seats and the BJP, Amberpet.

It is being stated that the Congress is attempting to lure these city BRS MLAs into its fold to strengthen ahead of the Lok Sabha polls in April 2024 and GHMC elections in December 2025, mimicking the strategy adopted by the BRS in Hyderabad after it came to power in 2014.

While the BRS had no major presence in the city then, it took nine TD MLAs from the city in 2015 which helped it win the GHMC polls in February 2016 by securing 99 of 150 divisions.

Then TD MLA Talasani Srinivas Yadav was among the defectors and was, subsequently, rewarded with a Cabinet minister post in the BRS government.
The Congress is facing a similar situation in the city now. The BRS came to power in 2014 by winning 63 seats — one fewer than Congress’ 64 — but it could win just three seats in the city.

Nagendar, on the other hand, a six-time MLA, won four polls on a Congress ticket, winning in 1994, 1999 and 2004 from Asifnagar and in 2009 from Khairatabad. He lost the Assembly polls in 2014 and joined BRS in 2018, ahead of the polls. He won on the BRS ticket in 2018 and the recent Assembly polls from Jubilee Hills.

The Opposition legislators, both elected from the city, launched the schemes on Sunday and said the BRS would extend complete cooperation to the Congress government to implement schemes that benefit the public.

While Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy had launched both these schemes on Saturday, questions were raised in political circles on why the two BRS MLAs launched these schemes again in their constituencies, a day later.