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4 BJP Hyderabad corporators defect to TRS
The four corporators – Banothu Sujatha Naik from Hastinapuram, Archana Prakash from Rajendranagar, Derangula Venkatesh from Jubilee Hills and Sunitha Prakash Goud from Adikmet – joined the TRS at Telangana Bhavan in the presence of party working president and IT minister KT Rama Rao.
Four BJP members of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation defected to the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi on Thursday, in a big setback to the BJP just two days before its national executive committee meeting here.
The four corporators – Banothu Sujatha Naik from Hastinapuram, Archana Prakash from Rajendranagar, Derangula Venkatesh from Jubilee Hills and Sunitha Prakash Goud from Adikmet – joined the TRS at Telangana Bhavan in the presence of party working president and IT minister KT Rama Rao.
BJP floor leader in Tandur municipality Sindhuja Goud and councillor Md Asif also joined the TRS along with the four GHMC corporators.
TRS MP from Chevella P Ranjith Reddy and MLAs Maganti Gopinath, Danam Nagender, Pilot Rohit Reddy and P Sudhir Reddy, who played a key role in the defections, were also present at the time of their joining the TRS.
With these defections, the strength of the TRS in 150-member GHMC has gone up to 60 and that of the BJP has come down to 44.
Interestingly, it was only on June 7 that the defected BJP corporators, along with 44 of their colleagues in the GHMC, besides several party leaders from Hyderabad, had met prime minister Narendra Modi in Delhi. They posed for a photograph with Modi and spoke very highly of his government at the Centre.
It was definitely an embarrassment to the Telangana BJP led by its president Bandi Sanjay, who has been euphoric over hosting the BJP national executive committee meeting in Hyderabad, which would be attended by the Prime Minister, besides home minister Amit Shah and national president JP Nadda among other bigwigs of the party.
BJP official spokesman K Krishna Sagar Rao said the timing of the defections of four BJP corporators into the TRS was indicative of the state ruling party’s low-level politics. “The TRS wishes to play the game of one-upmanship and showcase its strength of poaching other party leaders during Narendra Modi’s visit,” he said.
However, BJP is focused on serving the people of the state, when they give us an opportunity in the next elections, Rao added.
EX-MP to join BJP
Former parliamentarian from Telangana and industrialist Konda Vishweshwar Reddy on Thursday announced that he would be joining the BJP on July 2 or 3 during the party’s national executive committee meeting in Hyderabad.
Reddy, who is the son-in-law of Apollo Group of Hospitals chairman C Pratap Reddy, represented Chevella parliamentary constituency on TRS between 2014 and 2018. He defected to the Congress leader. After the 2019 general elections, he resigned from the Congress party and has been independent since then.
“I realised that in the given circumstances, only the BJP can defeat the TRS in Telangana. I had met BJP national president J P Nadda recently and he advised me to join the party on July 2 or 3. I am planning to contest as an MP in the next general elections,” he said.
