Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy is reportedly planning a series of strategic maneuvers to weaken the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), often referred to as the Pink Party. With a mix of political alliances, grassroots campaigns, and targeted policies, Reddy aims to challenge the BRS’s stronghold ahead of upcoming elections.
Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy appears to have set in motion a new strategy to inveigle BRS MLAs into abandoning their party and joining the ranks of the Congress.
The recent appointments of BRS MLC Patnam Mahender Reddy as the government chief whip in the state Legislative Council, Serilingampally BRS MLA Arekapudi Gandhi as Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman and former Speaker Pocharam Srinivas Reddy as advisor to the government on agriculture are intended to lure more BRS MLAs into the Congress camp.
As the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) elections are not very far off, it appears that the chief minister wants to entice opposition MLAs from the GHMC area. This appears to be the strategy in appointing Patnam Mahender Reddy and Arekapudi Gandhi as government chief whip in the council and PAC chairman respectively.
As Mahender Reddy and Gandhi are from two powerful communities — Reddy and Kamma — their presence in the Congress would havea beneficial effect on the party’s prospects of winning the GHMC elections.
In fact, Revanth had a spin-off benefit after a row ensued between Gandhi and the BRS workers following his appointment as PAC chairman. In the heat of the moment, BRS MLA Padi Kaushik Reddy asked Gandhi, who represents the powerful Kamma community which has a large presence in Hyderabad, not to forget the fact that he migrated to Hyderabad from Andhra in search of livelihood.
The unwitting comments of Kaushik Reddy appear to be rankling in the minds of Andhraites who settled in Hyderabad and political observers wonder if this would have an impact on the prospects of the party on the day of elections to the GHMC.
Though Pocharam Srinivas Reddy is from Nizamabad district, his appointment as advisor on agriculture might influence Andhra voters in Hyderabad in favour of the Congress as he had a long innings in the TDP before joining the BRS. He was elected to the Assembly several times on TDP ticket in the past.
Mahender Reddy is expected to win Hyderabad voters for the Congress as his family has been firmly entrenched in Rangareddy district. His wife was Rangareddy ZP chairperson twice in the past. His appointment as chief whip in the Council has sparked off a major row between the Congress and the BRS. Senior BRS leader T Harish Rao termed his appointment as outright unconstitutional since he cannot issue whip to Congress MLCs while remaining in the BRS.
Revanth, by bestowing positions of power that carry Cabinet rank on MLAs who defected to the Congress from BRS, might further arouse interest among the remaining BRS MLAs who might be wondering whether it would be wise to continue in the pink party. They might be tempted to take a leap of faith into the Congress in the hope of landing some position or the other.
There is speculation that the BRS city MLAs Danam Nagender and Prakash Goud, who joined the Congress, might be rewarded for ditching their parent party as their support might become very crucial in helping the Congress navigate the choppy waters at the time of the GHMC elections. It is said that Congress has already asked the BRS MLAs who changed the colour of their plumes to get more number of their former colleagues into the grand old party.
As some of their colleagues have already been given positions, they expect that their service in landing BRS colleagues, mostly city MLAs, might fetch them similar positions of power. #hydkhabar
About The Author
