 "kcr, K Chandrashekar Rao")
Ex-Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLA Tellam Venkata Rao, who lost his last election, had recently switched to Congress; however, as the Telangana Assembly elections come closer, Rao is considering making a comeback to the BRS, Deccan Chronicle (DC) has reported.
Rao had joined the Congress along with Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy and is planning a return to the BRS as he is not sure of getting a ticket from the Congress for the Bhadrachalam seat, the report said.
Currently, the senior Congress leader in the state, Podem Veeraiah, is the sitting MLA from the Bhadrachalam seat. Rao has claimed that although he joined Congress with Srinivas, the BRS ticket for the Bhadrachalam seat was reserved for him.
The senior leadership at BRS is in touch with Venkata Rao, and the party will reportedly offer him an MLA ticket from the Bhadrachalam seat if he returns to BRS, the DC report said.
Rao said he would soon announce his final decision on returning to the BRS. "My supporters are mounting pressure on me to make a decision," Rao said in the DC report.
Venkata Rao also said that the Congress party could accommodate him by shifting Podem Veeraiah to the Mulugu constituency. Asserting his decision to contest from the Bhadrachalam seat, Rao said, "I have a strong base in Bhadrachalam and won't contest from any other constituency."
During the 2018 Telangana Assembly elections, Veeraiah contested from Bhadrachalam when he was shifted from the Mulugu constituency to accommodate Seethakka there.
Venkata Rao said that Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy discussed the subject of a Congress ticket from the Bhadrachalam constituency, after which Reddy asked Rao to wait for some more time for clarity on the issue. Rao said that since the Congress party has not given him any assurance, there is no point in waiting when BRS is already offering a ticket from the Bhadrachalam seat, the report said.
