Six BRS MLCs Join Congress

Hyderabad: In a surprise midnight development, six BRS MLCs joined the Congress in the presence of Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy at his residence here on Thursday, giving a strategic boost to the ruling party in the Upper House where it had only six MLCs.

The BRS suffered a big blow with the defection of MLCs Dande Vittal, Bhanu Prasad, B. Dayanand, Prabhakar Rao, Egge Mallesham and Basavaraju Saraiah.

They joined the Congress soon after Revanth Reddy returned from Delhi on Thursday night.

With this, the Congress’ strength in the 40-member Legislative Council has increased to 12. There are two vacancies. The Upper House has one MLC each of the MIM and the BJP, and two independents. The remaining 20 MLCs are with the BRS.

The Congress needs a majority in the Council to pass new legislation including the ROR Act, and the law replacing Rythu Bandhu with Rythu Bharosa among others.