Another MLA set to leave BRS to join Congress

Another MLA is set to say goodbye to the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

T. Prakash Goud, the BRS MLA from Rajendranagar constituency in Greater Hyderabad, called on Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy on Friday.

He is likely to join the ruling party in a day or two along with his followers.

Prakash Goud was elected from Rajendranagar in the recent elections for the fourth consecutive term. He has won all the four elections from Rajendranagar since 2009, when the constituency was created in the delimitation process.

He was first elected as Telugu Desam Party (TDP) candidate. He was re-elected on TDP ticket in 2014 but later defected to TRS (now BRS). He was re-elected on a BRS ticket in 2018 and retained the seat in 2023.

If Prakash Goud joins the Congress, he will be the fourth BRS MLA to do so in less than a month. Earlier, D. Nagender from Khairatabad constituency in Hyderabad, Kadiam Srihari from Station Ghanpur in Warangal district and Tellam Venkat Rao, from Bhadrachalam in Khammam district had defected to the Congress party.

Nagender, a former minister, has been fielded by the Congress as its candidate for Secunderabad Lok Sabha seat. The ruling party has also given Warangal MP ticket to Kadiam Srihari’s daughter Kadiam Kavya after she pulled out of the contest as BRS candidate.

BRS, which lost power to Congress recently after ruling the state for 10 years, had bagged 39 seats in the 119-member Assembly.

The party has already petitioned Assembly Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar to disqualify the defectors.

In the run up to Lok Sabha polls, the BRS also lost five sitting MPs to opposition parties. While three of them joined the Congress, two crossed over to the BJP.