Hyderabad Mayor Gadwal Vijayalaxmi has joined the ruling Congress party, and was welcomed by Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and AICC in-charge for Telangana Deepa Dasmunshi. Vijayalaxmi, who is the daughter of BRS general secretary and Rajya Sabha member K. Keshav Rao, is expected to officially join the Congress party soon.
Keshav Rao met with Revanth Reddy, Dasmunshi, and other leaders on Friday before his daughter’s announcement. The move by the Hyderabad mayor to switch parties is seen as a boost for the Congress, especially after the party failed to win any seats in the Greater Hyderabad region during the last Assembly elections.
In the previous Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) elections in 2020, BRS emerged as the largest party with 55 out of 150 wards, followed by BJP with 48 seats and AIMIM with 44 wards. The Congress party only managed to secure two wards. Vijayalaxmi, who represents Banjara Hills ward, was the first woman Mayor of Telangana.
She justified her decision to join Congress by stating that development projects can progress more smoothly when the Mayor is aligned with the ruling party. Keshav Rao, who had been with Congress for 55 years before joining BRS in 2013, recently informed BRS president and former chief minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao about his decision to return to Congress.
The move by Keshav Rao and his daughter is seen as another setback for BRS, which lost power to Congress in the November 30, 2023 elections.
