Blow to BRS as several leaders from Maheshwaram join Cong

Rangareddy : The day after a BRS meeting at Chevella wherein senior party leaders went into a huddle for quite a few hours with KTR, a bunch of seniors and councillors from the Maheshwaram constituency sent a shockwave to the leadership by formally joining the Congress.

It is learnt that over a dozen BRS leaders, mainly from Jalpally and Tukkuguda municipalities, have joined the ruling party. The latest development is being perceived as a blow for the local MLA P Sabita Indra Reddy, just ahead of a proposed meeting of Congress party in Chevella scheduled to be held on April 6.

Senior BRS leaders and councillors from Jalpally, Tukkuguda and Saroornagar, led by Chevella MP Ranjith Reddy met Chief Minister Revanth Reddy at his residence on Thursday. The BRS president in the Jalpally municipality Iqbal Bin Khalifa, also considered as close confidant of Sabita, along with eight leaders and councillors were in the delegation who joined the Congress.

The BRS leaders who joined the Congress fold from Jalpally municipality are include Syed Yousuf Patel, the brother of Farhana Naaz Vice President and Councilor Ward No.8, Syed Mazhar Councilor Ward No.7, Saud Awalgi Councilor Ward No.22, Bashamma Councilor Ward No.20 and Radhika Sharavan, Councilor Ward No.4 and Pushpamma Councilor Ward No.13, Jalpally municipality.

Similarly, the vice-chairman of the Tukkuguda municipality Bhavani Venkat Reddy, councillor Srikanth Goud, besides ex-ZPTC from the Saroornagar area Jillela Narender Reddy joined the Congress.

Surprisingly, Deputy Chief Minister Batti Vikramarka was in the Tukkuguda area of Maheshwaram when the development was reported.

Defection of Jalpally BRS leaders is being perceived as a big blow to Sabita who always managed to secure a decisive mandate from the gigantic municipality with over one lakh population.

The Jalpally municipality, once considered a stronghold of the Congress was turned into a BRS bastion after Telangana came into being. Sabita who defected from the Congress to the BRS along with few other MLAs in 2018, enjoys an unflinching mandate in her favour mainly from the Jalpally municipality in Maheshwaram buttressed with a support from the AIMIM. Although the BRS conceded defeat at State level in the recent elections, the former minister registered a second consecutive victory from the constituency.

However, a rift has always been there among the BRS minority leaders who were often found unhappy with the way Sabita gave prominence to the AIMIM leaders over her own party cadre and councillors mainly from Jalpally, a civic body known as a densely populated among all ULBs in the district.

Spread over 30 km on the city outskirts, the Jalpally municipality was carved out in 2016 by merging areas like Jalpally, Balapur, Kothapet and Pahadishareef. This mostly impoverished municipality is divided into 28 wards having 30,425 households, mainly settlers from neighbouring districts and north Indian States. With brazen encroachments over swaths of government and Wakf land and water bodies, the municipality earned a moniker of most unlawful ULB among all 16 municipalities in the district and known as a haven of landsharks.