The ruling Congress in Telangana has stepped up its efforts to weaken the Opposition party, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), both in the Assembly and Council, after the latter’s pathetic performance in the Lok Sabha elections, in which BRS did not win a single seat from nine last time.
Sources in BRS admitted that the focus of the ruling party is now on BRS legislators, as it needs numbers, and plans to send positive signals to the party high command following its ‘below expectation’ performance recently.
One Lok Sabha constituency consists of seven Assembly segments, and the BRS numbers came to naught from 39 it had won in December last and that of Congress to 56 from 64 it had won in the Assembly polls.
Similarly, the numbers of BJP have made a quantum jump from 8 to 56, while those of AIMIM remained the same at seven.
The Congress is encouraging defection, mostly from Hyderabad and its surrounding constituencies, sources said, adding that efforts to wean away MLCs were also intense, as the ruling party requires numbers to get government bills passed in the Council.
The Congress has only four members, technically, in the 40-member House, though Patnam Mahender Reddy has already defected to the Congress and two more are with BRS, only technically.
On the other hand, BRS has a strength of 25, including Council Chairman Gutha Sukender Reddy and another four nominated MLCs on its side. Mr. Sukender Reddy’s son has joined the Congress during the Lok Sabha elections and Mr. Reddy too, appears to have made up his mind by dropping enough indications with his open criticism of the BRS leadership.
The ruling party is learnt to be planning to wean away as many MLCs as possible from BRS before the latter could move a no-confidence motion against Mr. Sukender Reddy.
Meanwhile, the defection of former Speaker of the Assembly and BRS MLA from Banswada Pocharam Srinivas Reddy to the Congress on Friday brings down the strength of BRS in the Assembly to 34 technically with Kadiyam Srihari, Danam Nagender and Tellam Venkata Rao joining the ruling party already, and BRS losing the Secunderabad Cantonment bypoll. The party had won 39 seats in the Assembly elections held in November last.
Published - June 21, 2024 08:12 pm IST
