The cup of woes of the Opposition Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) appear to be spilling over continuously ever since the party has been voted out of power in December last with one more sitting MP of the party, this time Dr. G. Ranjith Reddy from Chevella, calling it quits due to changed political circumstances in the State.
He joined the ruling Congress following Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy visiting him in his residence here on Saturday. The quitting of Mr. Ranjith Reddy takes the number of sitting MPs of BRS leaving the party in over a month to 5 out of 9.
The BRS MPs B. Venkatesh Netha (Peddapalli), P. Ramulu (Nagarkurnool), B.B. Patil (Zaheerabad) and P. Dayakar (Warangal) have deserted the party already. Mr. Venkatesh and Mr. Dayakar have joined the Congress, while Mr. Ramulu and Mr. Patil have joined Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Of the remaining four, three have been retained by the party leadership to contest their seats again – N. Nageswara Rao (Khammam), M. Kavitha (Mahabubabad) and M. Srinivas Reddy (Mahabubnagar), while K. Prabhakar Reddy (Medak) has resigned as MP after getting elected to the Assembly from Dubbak constituency.
Not only the sitting MPs but nearly a dozen of the BRS MLAs have also met either the Chief Minister or other key leaders of the Congress setting off a speculation that they too are in line to leave the party “at a right time” to avoid attracting the provisions of Anti-Defection Law. The law specified that the elected members of a party could avoid disqualification, if at least the two-thirds of them decide to leave the party.
With the BRS has a tally of 39 including the Secunderabad Catonment seat falling vacant after newly-elected G. Lasya Nanditha died in a road accident last month. By-election to the seat is scheduled to be conducted along with the Lok Sabha polls.
In case, the BRS MLAs want to escape the Anti-Defection Law provisions and disqualification, at least 26 members need to cross the fence or else they could remain with the party on whose symbol they are elected technically (name sake) but side with the party they are migrating to for all practical purposes, a political observer explained.
Several other senior leaders, former MLAs who lost the recent Assembly election and former MPs have also decided to pursue an alternative political path either with the Congress or BJP with several of them getting accommodated by the two parties to contest the coming Lok Sabha elections.
Unfazed by the desertions, the BRS leadership is making all efforts to fight the Lok Sabha polls with all the enthusiasm stating that “the party has been into such situations several times since its inception in 2001” and coming out of it every time with renewed vigour.
