Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, four opposition Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLAs meeting Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Tuesday evening has heated up Telangana politics.
While the MLAs on Wednesday clarified that they met the CM to discuss with him some protocol problems they have been facing in their respective constituencies, parallels are being drawn to BRS supremo K Chandrashekar Rao's unleashing of ‘Operation Akarsh’ immediately after 2018 Assembly polls and opening the gates to induct Congress MLAs.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, twelve Congress MLAs joined the then ruling party TRS (later renamed BRS) by merging the Congress Legislature Party.
Interestingly all the four BRS MLAs who met Revanth Reddy belong to erstwhile Medak district in north Telangana, which is considered a strong bastion of BRS.
Most importantly three of the four Assembly segments that these MLAs represent come under Medak Lok Sabha.
The four MLAs who met Revanth Reddy on Tuesday evening are Vakiti Sunitha Laxma Reddy from Narsapur, Kotha Prabahakar Reddy of Dubbaka, Gudem Mahipal Reddy of Pathancheru and Manik Rao from Zaheerabad Assembly constituencies.
“What’s wrong if we meet the Chief Minister to discuss issues related to our constituency. It's the same manner how Revanth Reddy met Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” said Mahipal Reddy.
Sunita Laxma Reddy threatened to file defamation suit in the court against those who continue to spread "lies" that they are switching sides.
“Ever since the Assembly polls we have been facing protocol issues in our respective constituencies. Local officials are giving importance to Congress leaders instead of elected representatives in official programmes. We have discussed those issues with the CM. There is nothing political in it,” said Kotha Prabhakar Reddy at BRS central office Telangana Bhavan.
BJP leader and former Dubbak former MLA, G Raghunandan Rao, however ridiculed Prabhakar Reddy for citing protocol issues.
Immediately after the Assembly polls in 2018, at least 11 Congress MLAs pledged support to the BRS.
After the Lok Sabha polls one more Congress MLA joined the bandwagon and they could escape the disqualification bid as they were two thirds of the total 18 Congress MLAs and ‘merged’ the CLP.
“At this stage we can’t say if Congress led by Revanth had started poaching the opposition MLAs. But, we can certainly say that such meetings would definitely counter the narrative unleashed by BRS immediately after the assembly polls that the current government with just above simple majority will fall anytime soon,” political analyst and Telangana Journalists Adhyayana Vedika convenor Bodanapally Venugopal Reddy told DH.
While the magic figure to form a government in Telangana is 60 MLAs in the 119-member Assembly, Congress had secured 64 seats, just four above the required numbers.
With ally CPI’s lone member, Congress could form the government with 65 seats.