Another BRS MLA joins Congress in Telangana (Lead)

Hyderabad, July 12 (IANS) Another MLA of Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) on Friday joined the Congress, taking to eight the number of BRS MLAs who defected to the ruling party since the Assembly elections the previous year.Prakash Goud, the MLA from Rajendranagar constituency in Greater Hyderabad, joined the Congress in the presence of Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy at the latter’s residence on Friday night.His followers also joined the ruling party. Revenue Minister P. Srinivas Reddy, MLC Mahender Reddy and others were present.Earlier, Goud had announced after a visit to Tirumala temple in Andhra Pradesh that he had decided to join the Congress. He is the eighth BRS MLA to switch loyalties since Congress came to power in the state in December 2023.Goud, along with fellow BRS MLA Arekapudi Gandhi, had met Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu during his visit to Hyderabad last week.As Naidu is planning to revive the TDP in Telangana, this meeting had sparked speculations that they will defect to the TDP.However, both the MLAs denied any such plans.Goud on Friday said Chandrababu Naidu was his political guru and that he was happy that Naidu has become Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister once again.Goud had called on Revanth Reddy early this year amid reports that he was planning to join Congress. However, his joining was delayed due to some reasons.Elected from Rajendranagar constituency on a TDP ticket in 2009, Goud was re-elected in 2014 but later joined the TRS (now BRS). In the Assembly elections held in November 2023, he was elected from the constituency on a BRS ticket for a fourth consecutive term.With the latest defection, the BRS tally in the 119-member Assembly has come down to 30. It 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 has gone up to 73.The BRS also lost six MLCs and several senior leaders to Congress during the last seven months.Meanwhile, D. Nagender, one of the BRS MLAs who joined the Congress before the Lok Sabha elections, has claimed that the BRS Legislature Party will soon merge with the Congress Legislature Party. The former minister said that only four MLAs, including BRS President K. Chandrasekhar Rao, his son K.T. Rama Rao and nephew Harish Rao will remain in the BRS.–IANSms/vd