35 BRS leaders join Congress in presence of Kharge, Rahul

As many as 35 BRS leaders, including former MP Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy and ex-minister Telangana government Jupally Krishna Rao, joined the Congress and met the party's top leadership in New Delhi on Monday.

The Bharat Rashtra Samithi leaders formally joined the Congress in the presence of Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and former party chief Rahul Gandhi. Party general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal and Congress chief of its Telangana unit A Revanth Reddy were also present at the meeting.

After meeting the Congress top brass, the BRS leaders announced at a press conference that they are joining the Congress. They will later address a public rally in Khammam, Telangana expected to be held in the first week of July with the likely presence of AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi.

While Reddy is a former Lok Sabha MP from Khammam, Krishna Rao is a former Andhra Pradesh and Telangana minister and has been an MLA five times.

The development comes ahead of Assembly elections in the state later this year. The Congress is seeking to wrest power from the BRS, which has been in power for the last almost a decade in Telangana.