Mohammed Ali Shabbir, a senior leader in Congress, has challenged BRS working president K Taraka Rama Rao to a debate on the issue of defection of MLAs, MLCs, and MPs. Shabbir Ali denied KTR’s claims that Congress started the culture of defections, stating that it was actually BRS president K Chandrashekhar Rao who began and legalized this practice.
Defections started when KCR came to power in 2014, with two BSP MLAs joining BRS on June 2, 2014. TDP MLA Talasani Srinivas Yadav also became a TRS Minister without resigning from his party, a move that should have triggered bye-elections according to the rules. During KCR’s first term as Chief Minister, a total of 47 defections occurred, involving MPs, MLAs, and MLCs. In his second term, 14 MLAs, including those from Congress and TDP, defected to BRS.
Shabbir Ali challenged KTR to a debate and criticized him for targeting Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy instead of addressing the issue of defections directly.
