The ruling BRS party in Hyderabad is focusing on leaders from the Reddy community in order to impact the Congress party. Ministers KT Rama Rao and T Harish Rao are working to bring these leaders into the BRS party.
The Congress party has traditionally been dominated by leaders from the Reddy community. There have been talks of a reunion of these community leaders, especially with TPCC chief A Revanth Reddy being from the same community.
The BRS leadership believes that the coming together of Reddy leaders would polarize votes in many constituencies, as these leaders have significant financial resources. The ruling party doesn’t want to take any chances, especially since some Reddy leaders have recently left the party.
In the past few days, several Reddy community leaders have joined the BRS party. This includes former MLA P Shashidhar Reddy, who joined in the presence of Harish Rao. Other leaders from the Congress party have also joined along with Shashidhar Reddy.
There have been recent desertions from the Congress party as well. Medak DCC president Kanthareddy Tirupati Reddy joined the BRS party after rumors that the ticket for Medak constituency would be reserved for someone else. Shyamsundar Reddy from Alair constituency also joined the BRS party.
Uppal Congress leader Singireddy Somashekhar Reddy also resigned recently. The BRS leaders are attempting to convince him to join their party.
Additionally, the BRS leaders are also trying to attract BC leaders from the Congress party. While they successfully convinced senior Congress leader Ponnala Lakshmaiah to resign and join the BRS, they are still working on getting other leaders to switch sides. KT Rama Rao has expressed his intention to visit Ponnala if he agrees to join the BRS party.