Telangana: Pocharam Joins Congress, Says Impressed With Revanth’s Work

Hyderabad: The ‘Lakshmi Putrudu’ has left the BRS. Parige (Pocharam) Srinivas Reddy, senior leader in the BRS, former speaker of the Telangana Legislative Assembly, and the MLA from Banswada, on Friday joined the Congress, and in the process, delivered a very strong blow to the BRS which had been floundering ever since it lost power in Telangana in the 2023 Assembly elections.

Srinivas Reddy was fondly referred to as ‘Lakshmi Putrudu (son of Goddess of wealth Lakshmi) by BRS president and former chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao, and his exit from the BRS is being viewed as the opening of a “green channel” for other BRS legislators to make the switch to the ruling Congress.

After inviting Srinivas Reddy into the Congress, Chief Minister and TPCC president A. Revanth Reddy, who called on the former at his residence along with minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy, said: “I requested him to extend support as a big brother, to join hands for rebuilding Telangana. He agreed to do so for the welfare of the farming community. My government is committed to farmers’ welfare and will seek his views on the subject. Srinivas Reddy will get due respect in future,” Revanth Reddy said after the meeting.

The government, he said, will also seek Srinivas Reddy’s cooperation in completing all pending projects in Nizamabad district.

Srinivas Reddy said he had been closely watching how the Congress government was approaching issues related to farmers and was impressed by Revanth Reddy’s work. “I invited Revanth Reddy to my house. I, as a farmer, believe that the decisions he is taking are in the interests of the farming community. And I decided to extend my support to him and join the Congress,” he said.

The former Speaker said, “My aspirations are all about the welfare of farmers. Revanth Reddy has the energy and determination to serve the people for at least another 20 years. Together, we will work for the farming community in the state.”

Srinivas Reddy is the fourth BRS MLA to break ranks with Chandrashekar Rao and join the Congress after last year’s Assembly elections. His move was preceded by the exits from the BRS of its Rajendranagar MLA Prakash Goud, Bhadrachalam MLA Tellam Venkat Rao, and Khairatabad MLA Danam Nagender. With Srinivas Reddy joining the Congress, the BRS’ strength in the Assembly has

been reduced to 35 from 39 seats.

The buzz doing the rounds for a while now which picked up pace on Friday is that at least another 20 BRS MLAs were waiting to cross over to the Congress, and among them are some of the opposition party legislators from Greater Hyderabad. “It was the BRS chief who set the ball rolling by admitting MLAs from other parties when he was in power. Now, he will face the consequences of a trend that he started. Most leaders in the BRS are feeling throttled and are waiting for the right moment to leave the party and that moment will be coming soon,” a senior Congress leader said.