BRS tries to contain damage, fields MLAs to affirm faith in party

Hyderabad: A day after four of its MLAs met with Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy setting off intense speculation among political circles that the meeting could be the first step of testing the waters by BRS MLAs who might be considering switching sides to the ruling party, the BRS on Wednesday deployed the same four MLAs to present a picture of unity and discipline in the party.

The four MLAs — Sunitha Laxma Reddy (Narsapur), Kotha Prabhakar Reddy (Dubbak), Gudem Mahipal Reddy (Patancheru) and K. Manik Rao (Zaheerabad) — on Wednesday addressing a press conference, stuck to a scripted party line that their meeting with Revanth Reddy was not political but was a courtesy-cum-business call.

They said they took to the Chief Minister’s notice issues about their constituencies, along with protocol issues, and security-related matters such as not being provided with police escorts.

Even as their protestations were on, former BJP MLA from Dubbak M Raghunandan Rao stoked further flames within the BRS declaring that the meeting was orchestrated by senior BRS leader T. Harish Rao, and the day is not far when many BRS MLAs will join the Congress. “The meeting could not have happened without Harish Rao’s knowledge,” Rahughandan Rao said.

The BRS MLAs, however, were united in claiming that they have no intention of leaving the party and that they would work hard for its success in the coming Lok Sabha elections. They also said they will continue meeting the Chief Minister, and other ministers when it comes to their constituency affairs.

They, however, admitted the BRS leadership was not informed in advance about their meeting with the Chief Minister, saying that the leadership trusts them fully, and there was no need for any such prior information to be passed on.

The news of Tuesday’s meeting clearly came as a surprise to the BRS leadership, and it was learnt that the MLAs received earfuls from top BRS leaders on their ‘misadventure’.

“It did not go well and sent all kinds of wrong signals,” a top party leader confessed. Even more hurting to the BRS was the fact that these MLAs were elected from Medak, the home district of party president and former Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao, and is being seen as a publicity disaster by the BRS leadership, it is learnt.

Sticking to the party instructions to ‘hit back strongly’ at ‘the misinformation’, Sunitha Laxma Reddy said “Attempts are being made to create confusion in the party ranks over the meeting. We have political values and are not the kind to quit our party. And our leadership had complete faith in us. If deliberate attempts are made to tarnish our images, then we will not hesitate to launch defamation proceedings against such persons.”

The other MLAs – one after the other - too declared their loyalty to the BRS and its leadership and vowed to continue in their party.

BRS MLAs’ meeting shows easy access to CM

The meeting of four BRS MLAs with A Revanth Reddy showed how much things have changed in Telangana when it comes to people’s access to Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, who personally accepted petitions at the first Praja Darbar at the Praja Bhavan, and has been meeting with people from various walks of life.

For the BRS MLAs who met with him on Tuesday, it was equally easy, who practically dropped into his residence. The MLAs had apparently sought an appointment earlier with the Chief Minister but that did not come through as he was busy preparing to attend the World Economic Forum at Davos, after which he returned to the city a couple of days ago.

On Tuesday, according to Sunitha Laxma Reddy, one of the four BRS MLAs, after meeting with intelligence chief Shivdhar Reddy at the Secretariat, came to know that Revanth Reddy was at his residence, and after a phone call to check if they could go and meet him, did so.