Congress senior leader Mohammed Ali Shabbir criticized the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) for allowing political defections in Telangana. He accused KCR of starting this trend in 2014 and continuing it until the 2023 Assembly elections. Shabbir Ali spoke at a press conference at Gandhi Bhavan in Hyderabad.
Shabbir Ali gave examples of defections, such as two BSP MLAs joining BRS on June 2, 2014, and a TDP MLA becoming a minister without facing bye-elections in December 2014. He highlighted the case of 11 TDP MLAs defecting to BRS in March 2016. Shabbir Ali criticized these actions as undemocratic.
Shabbir Ali claimed that more than 30 out of 39 BRS MLAs are willing to switch to Congress, which could weaken BRS and impact its status as the main opposition party. He suggested that only KCR’s family members might remain in BRS in the future.