Telangana elections: As BRS leaders quit party, Congress makes gains

As the Telangana Assembly elections approach closer, the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) is having a tough time keeping its members together. For instance, former BRS MLA M Sudheer Roy and his son Sharath Chandra Reddy, the sitting zilla parishad chairperson for Medchal-Makajgiri, have joined the Congress, a Deccan Chronicle report said.

Moreover, Corporator Niharika Goud of the Jawaharnagar Municipal Corporation, several sarpanches, and workers of the BRS also joined the Congress in the presence of Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) chief A Revanth Reddy, the report added.

If this were not enough, former MLC and Telangana state women's finance development corporation chairperson Aluka Lalitha and Bodhan municipal corporation head T Padma also resigned from BRS. The two leaders are also likely to join the Congress shortly.

Amid ongoing instances of defection, MLC K Kavitha has come forward to lead the BRS and has promised to take the party to victory in the Nizamabad urban and Bodhan Assembly segments after the two women leaders left the party. K Kavitha is a sitting MLC of the BRS and CM K Chandrashekhar's daughter. Earlier, she was a Lok Sabha MP from Nizamabad during 2014-2019.

Congress is organising an aggressive campaign in the state, with the TPCC launching a bus yatra in the presence of senior leaders, including Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi.

Earlier, on October 9, the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced the election schedule for the five poll-bound states: Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Mizoram, and Telangana. The Chief Election Commissioner of India, Rajiv Kumar announced that the elections in Telangana will be conducted on November 30 and the results will be released on December 3.