Migration of leaders is a big concern for BRS

Hyderabad: While the BRS leadership is busy wooing senior leaders of the opposition parties, the second row leaders leaving the party has become a cause of concern for the pink party at the crucial election time.

Recently many leaders of the ruling party including members of the Legislative Assembly and Council, former members, Zilla Parishad chairpersons and others have left the party. Most of the leaders were unhappy with the party not giving tickets due to its policy of giving tickets to existing members. On Monday, senior Patancheru and BC leader Neelam Madhu Midiraj resigned from the party after it gave ticket to sitting MLA from Patancheru G Mahipal Reddy. After being denied the ticket, Madhu was angry and tried to meet the party chief but could not. Sources said the BRS leader was planning to contest the elections as an independent candidate.

There is a long list of leaders who have resigned from BRS and some of them have also been successful in getting tickets from the Congress party. Former Nakarekal MLA Vemula Veeresham, who resigned from BRS after the announcement of ticket to Ch Lingaiah, joined Congress and also got the ticket. Similarly, sitting MLC Kasireddy Narayana Reddy has also resigned and joined Congress to get ticket from Kalvakurthy.

Malkajgiri MLA Maynampally Hanumantha Rao also resigned from BRS after his request to give ticket to his son Rohit was rejected. Now he will contest elections with his son on Congress ticket. Many others like former MLC Akula Lalita, Balasani Laxminarayan, Santosh Kumar, Gadwal Zilla Parishad president Sarita and others also resigned due to various reasons. Interestingly, BRS chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao, in a meeting with the candidates, cautioned them to take along leaders from the second rung in the party.

He said that these leaders could contest the elections as rebels and hamper his chances of victory. He reminded that the same thing had happened in the last elections. “I had warned Jupalli Krishna Rao in 2018 about taking the leaders with him but he did not listen. The result was that his opponent contested the election as a rebel, resulting in Krishna Rao’s defeat,” Chandrashekhar Rao said.