Hyderabad: Engineering defections from the opposition Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) seems to have become a burden for the ruling Congress in Telangana as the party is in no mood to contest by elections. Senior Congress leaders said that the party is not in the best of shape in terms of public opinion and has hence more or less told the 10 BRS MLAs to say that they never switched sides.

In recent months, the Supreme Court told the Telangana Speaker to decide the issue in a time-bound manner. The twist was that the BRS MLAs in turn informed the Speaker that they are still with the BRS and that they never defected the Congress. In case any MLA shifts side, they have to vacate the seat and a by-election has to be held.

This however does not apply if two-thirds of legislators from one party defect. In the case of the BRS MLAs, 10 out of 39 defected to the Congress after the 2023 Telangana state elections. It was less than the two-thirds required to escape the anti-defection law. While it seemed like more would follow, internal issues on this matter in the Congress reportedly halted more MLAs from shifting.

The BRS then took the matter to court and put the ruling Congress and the 10 MLAs on the backfoot. In fact, BRS leaders told Siasat.com that the defectors had approached party supremo and ex-chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) to return but to no avail. And with the Congress unwilling to back them, they are now in a tough spot.

“The party does not want to contest by-elections because the current scenario is not exactly great for us in terms of public confidence. If we contest by-elections and lose then it will be a big burden on us,” a senior Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) member told Siasat.com. He added that winning the Jubilee Hills by-election is also crucial for the ruling party.

Currently, the two contenders that have come up as probable names are local leader Naveen Yadav and ex-MP Ranjith Reddy. So far the Congress has not announced any named anyone officially for the Jubilee Hills by-election as well. In the 2023 polls, ex-cricketer Mohammed Azharuddin has unsuccessfully contested the seat. He lost to BRS candidate Maganti Gopinath, whose death earlier this year necessitated the by-poll.

A BRS leader from Hyderabad also said that the party would not take back the 10 defected MLAs no matter what as it will set a bad precedent. It may be noted that while the BRS has taken umbrage at the defections, KCR in his two terms as chief minister also engineered defections from opposition parties including the Congress.

After the 2018 Telangana state polls, KCR managed to literally wipe out the opposition by winning 88 out of 119 seats. He then went on to engineer the defections of 12 Congress MLAs of its total 18 in the state Assembly.

“The issue with by-elections is that the defected MLAs will not just have to fight on Congress tickets, but that I will also have to deal with other Congress leaders who will be vying for the tickets. Then on top of that in some of the constituencies they will also have to face triangular fights as the BJP is growing in some pockets,” said a political analyst who did not want to be quoted.

One of the prominent defectors from the BRS is ex-deputy chief chief of Telangana Kadiam Srihari, a long time aide of KCR. He was with the BRS for about a decade until he joined the Congress after the 2023 state elections.

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