Two Adivasi ex-MLAs to join BRS in Nanded

Adilabad/Hyderabad: Two former Adivasi MLAs of Maharashtra are likely to join the BRS during Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao’s Nanded meeting on February 5.

Sources said that the two are Raju Thodasam, a former MLA of Khelapur, and Atram Deepak, of Aheri. They said that other leaders, including MLA aspirants, sarpanchs and zilla parishad chiefs are also likely to join the party in Rao’s presence.

Khelapur and Aheri share borders with the Adilabad and Mancherial districts of Telangana, respectively.

Thodasam, who won on a BJP ticket, joined the Nationalist Congress Party as the state president of its tribal wing after being denied a ticket last time by the saffron party. He recently held talks with Adilabad MLA Jogu Ramanna and Adilabad MP Godam Nagesh.

Deepak, meanwhile, won as an independent candidate.

BRS leaders said that permission for the meeting was granted on the grounds that they don’t make provocative speeches or disturb traffic movement.

In the run-up to the BRS meeting, endowments minister Allola Indrakaran Reddy on Saturday visited Apparaopet, Shivini, Islapur and Himayatnagar in the Nanded district and interacted with the locals.

Villagers welcomed Indrakaran Reddy with much fanfare across Nanded.  

He said people were demanding welfare schemes like Rythu Bandhu, Rythu Bheema, free power, Kalyana Lakshmim Shadi Mubarak, pensions and two-bedroom houses.                   

“We will bring welfare schemes in all states on the lines of those implemented successfully in Telangana. These have been appreciated by many other states, including Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Maharashtra,” the minister said.

BRS leaders also performed a puja at the venue of the meeting.

MP B.B. Patil, MLAs Balka Suman, Hanumanth Shinde and Jogu Ramanna, and Civil Supplies Corporation chairman Sardaar Ravinder Singh took part in the puja.