Patnam Mahender Reddy may quit BRS, seeks Cong LS ticket for his wife

Party sources said that the couple had decided to quit the BRS and join the Congress. It is learnt that they sought the Congress ticket for Sunitha for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections from Chevella, and the Congress leadership is willing to give her the nomination.

Mahender Reddy was elected MLA on a BRS ticket from Vikarabad in 2014 and worked as transport minister in the Cabinet of then Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao from 2015 to 2018. He lost to Congress candidate P. Rohith Reddy in 2018.

Rohith Reddy defected to the BRS within six months. The BRS then nominated Mahender Reddy as MLC to pacify him and gave the Vikarabad ZP chairperson post to his wife. However, this did not end the rivalry between Mahender Reddy and Rohith Reddy.

Mahender Reddy demanded the BRS ticket from Vikarabad in the recent Assembly polls but the party chose Rohith Reddy. To pacify Mahender Reddy, Chandrashekhar Rao took him into his Cabinet as I&PR minister in August 2023, just three months before the Assembly polls.

However, Rohith Reddy lost to the Congress. Against this backdrop, Mahender Reddy and his wife decided to quit the BRS and join the Congress.