Telangana protagonists return to BRS

The party is currently witnessing a long line of Telangana statehood activists returning to the party's fold.

Hyderabad: The upcoming 2023 Assembly elections in Telangana are witnessing a “ghar wapsi” of sorts of active participants of the separate Telangana movement.

Following the formation of the State, several Telangana statehood activists had diverged from the BRS (formerly Telangana Rashtra Samithi) for various reasons. However, the party is currently witnessing a long line of these leaders returning to the party’s fold.

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“It is like the prodigal son has returned home,” was how BRS working president and Minister KT Rama Rao described the Telangana statehood activists returning to the partyfold over the last couple of months. He asserted that the party leadership harbored no ill will towards those who had previously left for various reasons and was willing to embrace these ‘old friends’ with open arms.

In recent months, a substantial number of senior leaders from parties like the Congress, BJP, and other political entities have rejoined the ruling BRS. Notable figures among them include Dasoju Sravan from the BJP, Cheruku Sudhakar Reddy from the Congress, former Chairman of the Telangana State Legislative Council and BJP leader K Swamy Goud, renowned folk singer Epuru Somanna, Jitta Balakrishna Reddy and many others.

Mamilla Rajender, the president of the Telangana Non-Gazetted Officers (TNGO) Association, who actively participated in the Telangana statehood movement, opted for voluntary retirement and has joined the BRS.

Congress leader Jitta Balakrishna Reddy, who had parted ways with the BRS (formerly TRS), returned to the party fold after 14 years. After joining the party, he said it felt like a homecoming for him. “I have been away from home for the last 14 years,” he said, and appealed to all protagonists of the Telangana movement to return to the BRS.

Dasoju Sravan, who rejoined the BRS, reflected on his earlier decision to quit the TRS in April 2014. “I don’t know whether I took this decision hastily. I joined the Congress and then the BJP with a lot of hope that the national parties would do good to Telangana. But nothing happened,” Sravan had said upon rejoining the BRS.

Party sources have revealed that numerous other Telangana activists who had left the party before 2018 are also rejoining the BRS in different parts of the State. A party general secretary explained that many leaders had departed in search of better prospects for themselves and also the new State, hoping that the national political parties could provide a more promising future for Telangana. But now that both the Congress and the BJP proved to be no match for the BRS in terms of welfare and development of Telangana, many are making their way back.