Aroori Ramesh had met Shah on Tuesday and reportedly expressed his willingness to take the leap of faith into the saffron party.
Published Mar 13, 2024 | 7:08 PM ⚊ Updated Mar 13, 2024 | 7:08 PM
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The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) seems to have veered to the conclusion that the only way to stop its leaders from joining other parties is to physically prevent them.
In Hanamkonda, amidst high drama, former BRS MLA from Wardhannapet, Aroori Ramesh, was literally taken way from his house by the BRS leaders on Wednesday, 13 March, even as he was about to officially announce that he was going to join the BJP.
He was taken straight to BRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao’s residence in Hyderabad in a car where he was persuaded against joining the BJP.
Later Ramesh came out and said that no one had kidnapped him and that he was very much in the BRS . He even said he did not meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday.
But he met Shah and reportedly expressed his willingness to take the leap of faith into the saffron party.
He is reported to have sought a BJP ticket for the Warangal Lok Sabha seat, to which Amit Shah appeared to have been favorable.
The trouble began when Ramesh was about to announce his decision to quit the BRS at a media conference at his residence in Hanamkonda when BRS leaders Basavaraj Saraiah and Sundaraj Yadav stormed into his house and asked him not join the BJP.
They told him that they came on the advice of former minister T Harish Rao to persuade him not to desert the BRS.
But Ramesh’ followers and BJP leaders who were present on the occasion picked up an argument with the BRS leaders.
When the BRS leaders tried to persuade Ramesh that the party would take good care of him, the latter’s supporters questioned them how could they could trust the party when it did not do anything for him when it was in power for 10 years.
Even then the BRS leaders tried to pacify Ramesh and told him that Harish Rao himself would pay a visit to him and that he better stay with the BRS.
The BRS leaders and workers, then began leading him out of his house, almost nudging him forward when former minister Errabelli Dayakar Rao entered the scene.
He also tried to make Ramesh see reason in not deserting the BRS. However, by then Ramesh’s supporters and the BJP leaders began shouting at the BRS leaders for taking him away against his volition.
The BRS leaders half-lead him and half-pushed him toward Dayakar Rao’s car and finally forced him inside.
Ramesh also asked his followers not to create any further trouble after which the leaders drove away from his residence in Dayakar Rao’s car with him.
As the car was on its way to Hyderabad, BJP workers stopped it at Pembarthy and forced Ramesh out of it. By then, the BRS workers too began gathering and asked him not join the BJP.
For some time, both the BRS and BJP leaders pulled him different directions. Finally, BRS workers managed to free him from BJP workers and took him away to Hyderabad. In the melee, Ramesh’ short was torn.
After Ramesh was whisked away, Warangal BJP leader Rao Padma criticised the BRS for “kidnapping” Ramesh. “He had said that he would join the BJP at Delhi. When he was getting ready to join the saffron party, the BRS leaders swooped on his house and took him away. It is highly condemnable and inappropriate,” she said.
Even as the drama was unfolding in Hanamkonda, former Sirpur BRS MLA Koneru Konappa resigned as the BRS district party president and announced that he would be joining the Congress soon.
Koneru Konappa’s brother Krishna, who is now the Asifabad Zilla Parishad chairman, was listed as an accused in an infamous case.
The incident involved beating up a forest department officer in 2019 at Sarsala village in Kumuram Bheem-Asifabad district for planting saplings in lands, which the tribals claimed they were raising crops in for years.
Konappa, a kamma leader, lost the election from Sirpur in 2023 elections to BJP’s Palvai Harish Babu with a margin of over 3,088 votes. Ever since, he has been nursing a grudge against BSP leader and former IPS Officer RS Praveen Kumar who also contested against him in the election.
Konappa believes that due to Praveen Kumar’s presence in the fray, he lost the election as the latter had cut into the SC votes, which might have otherwise gone in Konappa’s favour.
Praveen Kumar polled 44,646 votes, while Konappa secured more than 60,000 votes. Yet he came in as the runner-up to BJP nominee Harish Babu, who polled over 63,000 votes.
On Wednesday, while announcing his resignation from the BRS, Konappa said that he and his supporters could not stomach the party striking an alliance with the BSP.
Everyone in the constituency knows how Praveen Kumar had terrorized people by bringing his men into the constituency in the run up to the election, he said.
According to Konappa, Praveen Kumar had abused the BRS to no end and yet the party leadership chose to have an alliance with him.
“This has hurt us. That is why we have decided to join the Congress,” he said at a media conference earlier in the day.
Konappa said he was joining the Congress not for any position but only to serve the people of Sirpur constituency even better. He said that he would continue to lobby with the government for Tummidi-Hatti irrigation project, which would help provide irrigation facility to parched lands in the erstwhile Adilabad district.
(Edited by Shauqueen Mizaj)
