SNCN ACHARYULU
n hyderabad
Now it is the turn of the Congress. Chief Minister Revanth Reddy is now giving a return gift to former Chief Minister BRS President K Chandrasekhar Rao.
When the BRS was in power its leadership tried to empty the Congress by encouraging defections. Now, Congress Chief Minister Revanth Reddy is trying to empty the BRS by encouraging defections.
When the BRS came to power in 2014 it started encouraging defections from the Congress. After retaining power by winning the 2018 Assembly elections also the BRS continued to encourage defections from the Congress. Some Congress MLAs and senior leaders defected to the BRS.
Now, Chief Minister Revanth Reddy is concentrating on BRS leaders to make them defect. It appears that Revanth Reddy’s strategy is to give importance to BRS leaders rather than its MLAs.
When the BRS encouraged defections the Congress MLAs were wooed by the BRS. Even though some Congress MLAs and some senior leaders defected to the BRS the activist base of the Congress was intact and due to that the Congress was able to come to power in the Assembly elections.
Usually, local leaders are important in strengthening a party and they also work hard for the victory of the party during elections. So Chief Minister Revanth Reddy wants local leaders of the BRS to join the Congress. Municipal chairpersons, mandal and zilla parishad chairpersons will play a key role in local party programmes.
Around 25 municipalities have joined the Congress fold from the BRS in the last one and a half months. Patnam Mahendar Reddy was the first BRS MLC to join the Congress. His wife was the first Zilla Parishad chairperson to join the Congress.
Congress sources say that many BRS MLAs are in touch with them and are waiting for an appropriate time to join the Congress.
When the party’s senior leaders and others join the Congress the BRS leadership is not in a position to criticise the Congress as it did the same thing when it was in power.
Some politicians have become floating leaders like floating populations. They always join the party in power.