With eye on BRS MLAs, Revanth to open floodgates to defections

Hyderabad: After wrapping up his foreign tour, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy will be resuming poaching of BRS legislators. With next year’s GHMC polls in mind, the ruling party’s energies are now more focused in the city to secure maximum numbers towards impacting the polls next year.

Till now four MLAs representing Assembly constituencies under GHMC have already joined the Congress, including Danam Nagender (Khairatabad), Prakahs Goud (Rajendranagar), Arikepudi Gandhi (Serilingampally) and Mahipal Reddy (Patancheru), besides city suburbs like Kale Yadaiah (Chevella).

Till now, a total of 10 MLAs and six MLCs have already joined the party. However, with the continuous challenge posed by the pink party which is attempting to get back the MLAs the leadership has decided to go for a fresh bout. The BRS has recently tried to get back the Gadwal MLA, Bandla Krishnamohan Reddy while the ruling Congress was busy with conducting the budget session. Alerted by the attempts, Revanth has reportedly asked his core team to strategise plan as this was the month of Shravan considered to be auspicious.

According to party sources, with party leadership failing to offer any substantial positions to defected MLAs they remain at unease. Since earlier they were lured with promises, they had joined. Now there will be a shift in the strategy and in place of the carrot, stick will be employed. Meanwhile, some of the BRS MLAs who were planning to join BJP are discouraged by the fact that they have to resign from the legislature. Even as the negotiations are going on, there appears to be a deafening silence before the storm.

However, the party cadre remains skeptical about the party’s prospects in case it goes for any of the elections. With upcoming local body polls, leaders at different levels remain concerned, particularly in the backdrop of Lok Sabha polls, where the BJP has managed eight seats. “While the top leaders are mostly focused on administration after getting responsibilities, the issues related to organisation, particularly the fighting spirit and passion for achieving has diminished. I fear that the BJP, which was mostly confined to urban pockets may win substantially in local bodies,” felt a senior leader.

A few others who were part of the team managing the polls in State headquarters also expressed a similar opinion.

“There is a need to revamp the party structure as the decision on ticket allocation during Lok Sabha polls has dented the morale of the party cadre. If this continues like this, the party may face losses in the upcoming elections,” said another leader.