Telangana: Denied Assembly poll ticket, Congress ex-MLA Vishnuvardhan Reddy to join BRS
Oct 30, 2023
Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], October 30 : Denied a ticket by the Congress to contest the upcoming Telangana Assembly elections, former MLA P Vishnuvardhan Reddy is set to join the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS).
Speaking to the media persons on Monday, Reddy said, "I never imagined that the Congress would come to this state. The Congress will soon have to sell off the Gandhi Bhavan. We (Reddy and his followers) will join the BRS soon."
State Minister Harish Rao and other BRS leaders visited the former MLA at his Jubli Hills residence on Monday.
Speaking to media persons after the meeting, Harish Rao said that BRS will give a "respectable position" to Vishnuvardhan Reddy.
"The Congress leaders say P Janardhan Reddy (Vishnuvardhan's father) means the Congress and the Congress means PJR. He worked hard for the Congress, but the party has now been taken over by a few gangs that are meting out grave injustice to sincere and hard-working members like him. We will give a respectable position to Vishnuvardhan (in the BRS). Nagam Janardhan Reddy resigned from the Congress yesterday and joined BRS and PJR's son Vishnu is also set to join the BRS. We'll heartily welcome him into our party," Harish Rao said.
Meanwhile, in a boost to the Congress in its battle against the ruling BRS in the November 30 Assembly polls, the Telangana Jana Samithi announced on Monday that it will support the grand old party in the upcoming electoral contest.
The Jana Samithi arrived at a decision to extend support to the Congress after party president M Kodandaram met the state chief of the grand old party, Revanth Reddy, on Monday.
The counting of votes for Telangana, along with those of four other poll-bound states, is scheduled for December 3.
The state is set to witness an intriguing triangular contest between the ruling BRS, Congress, and the BJP.
In the previous Assembly elections in 2018, the BRS won 88 of the 119 seats, hogging 47.4 per cent of the total vote share.
The Congress finished a distant second with 19 seats and a vote share of 28.7 per cent.
