Hyderabad: Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) in Telangana suffered yet another setback on Monday when its MLA, G. Mahipal Reddy, joined the ruling Congress.
The MLA from Patancheru joined the Congress in the presence of Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy. Ministers Damodar Rajanarasimha, P. Srinivas Reddy, former MLA Jagga Reddy and other leaders were also present.
Former Congress leader Gali Anil Kumar who had switched to the BRS before last year's Assembly polls and contested both the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections unsuccessfully, also returned to the party, IANS reported.
Mahipal Reddy is the 10th BRS MLA to defect to Congress since the latter came to power in December 2023. He represents the Patancheru constituency in Sangareddy district.
In the recent elections, he was elected from the constituency on a BRS ticket for a third consecutive term. He is the third MLA to defect to Congress in four days.
Arekapudi Gandhi, the MLA from Serilingampally constituency in Greater Hyderabad, had joined the Congress on July 13 while a day earlier, T. Prakash Goud, the MLA from Rajendranagar constituency, also in Greater Hyderabad, had switched loyalties.
With the latest defection, the BRS tally in the 119-member Assembly has come down to 28. The BRS had bagged 39 seats in the election but lost the Secunderabad Cantonment seat to Congress in the by-election held in May. The tally of the Congress in the Assembly has gone up to 75. The BRS also lost six MLCs and several senior leaders to Congress during the last seven months.
Meanwhile, senior Congress leader Madhu Goud Yaskhi has said that the BRS MLAs are being admitted to the party with the approval of the top leadership He said the Congress did not buy any MLA. The former MP said in other states, the BJP is making Congress MLAs defect and making them ministers.