Hyderabad: Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLA Gudem Mahipal Reddy who defected to the Congress met his ex-boss and BRS supremo K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) on Wednesday, March 12, in the Telangana Assembly.
The legislator has caused speculations of his supposed return to the BRS with the meeting. KCR Had come to the Telangana Assembly for the first time in months. Prior to this he had come to the state legislature only once in 2024.
According to sources, the defected BRS MLA met KCR in the Telangana Assembly to invite him to a family wedding. KCR accepted the invite and spoke to him cordially and even enquired about his well being, added a BRS insider.
Mahipal Reddy, who was in the BRS earlier, had defected to the Congress soon after the 2023 Assembly elections. The Patancheru MLA has reportedy been at odds with Congress leaders, citing the government’s alleged failure to meet his constituency development requests.
While there is no information to confirm if Mahipal Reddy will be returning to the BRS, a party functionary told Siasat.com that the high command has decided to not take back the defected MLAs as of now. “One of them had tried to also return back recently, but the party did not let that happen,” he added.
Video: KCR receives warm welcome as he attends Assembly after months
The Congress won the 2023 Assembly elections, winning 64 out of 119 seats. The BRS secured 39 Assembly constituencies, while the BJP and AIMIM won 8 and 7 seats respectively. Post the polls, 10 BRS MLAs defected to the ruling party. While more were expected to follow, it did not happen due to internal conflicts that rose between the ex-BRS MLAs and local Congress leaders.
Mahipal Reddy also has frequently distanced himself from the BRS but insisted that his recent meeting with KCR was solely to extend a wedding invitation for a family event. “The BRS MLAs who defected will now have to re-contest the elections in by-polls. They are facing issues with the Congress leaders in their constituencies who they contested against in 2023. In the coming by-elections the BJP is also in the picture, so it will be a triangular fight,” said an analyst requesting anonymity.
By-elections are expected to be held in the coming days in seats held by the 10 defected BRS MLAs.
