Hyderabad: In a jolt to the BRS in Nalgonda ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, Gutha Amith Reddy, son of Legislative Council chairman Gutha Sukender Reddy, joined the Congress in the presence of Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy on Monday.
Amith Reddy was one of the contenders for the BRS Nalgonda ticket, which was given to Kancharla Krishna Reddy, brother of former Nalgonda MLA Kancharla Bhupal Reddy. Both Gutha's father and son were upset with the BRS leadership over this.
The BRS suffered a huge setback in the undivided Nalgonda district in the recent Assembly polls. It only won the Suryapet seat whereas the Congress clinched the remaining 11.
Prior to the 2023 Assembly polls, the BRS was holding all the 12 Assembly seats. With Amith's exit, it is now believed that the Gutha family has distanced itself from the BRS.
Sukender Reddy won the Nalgonda Lok Sabha seat thrice in 1999, 2009, and 2014. He won on the TD ticket in 2009 and on the Congress ticket in 2009 and 2014. In between, he also won as Nalgonda MLA on the TDP ticket in 2004. He joined TRS (now BRS) in 2016 when he was a Congress MP.
Subsequently, he was nominated as MLC in 2019 and made chairman of the Legislative Council for two terms.
Incidentally, BRS has never won the Nalgonda Lok Sabha seat even after a spectacular performance in the 2014 and 2018 Lok Sabha elections. On both occasions, it lost to Congress candidates.
