Hyderabad: Everyone’s eyes on BRS MLAs in Telangana, will they join Congress or BJP?

Hyderabad: The political equations in Telangana are about to change, with the tide now tilting towards the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which managed to win 8 of the 17 Lok Sabha seats in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections. According to sources in both the Congress and the BJP, the Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS), which did not win a single seat, is likely to witness defections. The biggest question is which side the MLAs will go to. After winning eight assembly seats in 2023, the BJP has jumped in Telangana in the last six months and secured 14% vote share. With this, it managed to secure 35% vote share with eight of the 17 Lok Sabha seats in the recently concluded general elections. A senior BJP leader said that they have not approached anyone from their side, but added that some BRS MLAs are in touch with them.

“We also feel that many BRS MLAs will leave. Some may come to us and some may go to the Congress. When asked about the possible defection, the BJP leader said, “Discussions are going on among the BRS MLAs on where they should go.” A senior Congress leader from Hyderabad also said that other factors like the formation of the new central government will also make a difference. “Now the game will begin. The BRS MLAs moving to the Congress depends on who forms the government at the Centre. If the BJP-led NDA forms the government as expected, the BRS MLAs may also join the BJP for central support,” he told Siasat.com. After last year’s assembly elections, there was political speculation that about 25 BRS MLAs were thinking of joining the Congress en masse. However, that did not happen. So far, only a few MLAs like Station Ghanapur MLA Kadiyam Srihari and Khairatabad MLA Danam Nagendra have joined the Congress ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. “The graph of Chief Minister Revanth Reddy has gone down now because of the Lok Sabha election results. Since we got only 8 out of 17 seats, the same as the BJP, we are not any stronger. We also lost three seats of Secunderabad, Mahabubnagar and Chevella with support from AIMIM, which shifted the Hindu votes to the BJP,” the Congress leader said. After the Lok Sabha elections, panchayat and local body elections are also due soon in Telangana, which will be a test of whether the BRS will be wiped out and the BJP will take over.