Ninth BRS legislator defects to Congress

BRS MLA Arekapudi Gandhi from Serilingampalli constituency in Telangana joins Congress, increasing Congress strength in assembly to 74.

A day after a Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) lawmaker from the Rajendranagar assembly constituency in Telangana defected to the Congress, another BRS MLA – Arekapudi Gandhi from Serilingampalli constituency in Hyderabad – joined the Congress on Saturday.

Telangana chief minister Revanth Reddy greets BRS MLA from Serilingampally Arekapudi Gandhi as the latter joins the Congress, in Hyderabad, on Saturday. (PTI)

Gandhi joined the Congress in the presence of PCC president and chief minister A Revanth Reddy at his residence in the morning. Along with the MLA, several other corporators in Hyderabad such as Nagender Yadav, Uppalapati Srikanth, Manjula Raghunath Reddy, and Narne Srinivas also joined the Congress.

Gandhi is the ninth BRS MLA to defect to the Congress. The strength of the BRS in the 119-member assembly has come down from 39 to 29 due to these nine defections and the loss of a seat in the by-elections to the Secunderabad Cantonment seat in May. Meanwhile, the strength of the Congress has gone up from 64 to 74.

A Congress leader familiar with the development said at least five more BRS MLAs are expected to jump the fence in the next few days.

The BRS has not yet reacted to these latest defections.