Ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in Telangana, another MLA from Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) has joined the ruling Congress party. Tellam Venkat Rao, the BRS MLA from Bhadrachalam, made the switch in the presence of Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy and revenue minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy.
This marks the third MLA from the main opposition party to join Congress in less than a month. Venkat Rao won his seat in Bhadrachalam in the recent Assembly elections, the only seat held by BRS in the district.
Venkat Rao had previously left BRS to join Congress last year, but returned to BRS after Congress fielded another candidate in his constituency. He defeated the Congress candidate in the election by 5,719 votes, adding to the setbacks faced by BRS since losing power to Congress.
The Congress party has launched ‘Operation Akarsh’ to attract more MLAs to join their ranks. Several MLAs, including Bandari Lakshma Reddy, Maganti Gopinath, Kaleru Venkatesh, and others, are expected to switch allegiance to Congress soon.
