BRS Rajya Sabha member K Keshava Rao, Hyderabad Mayor Gadwal Vijayalaxmi set to join Congress

The die had been cast for Keshava Rao and his daughter to return to Congress when the national party’s Telangana in-charge Deepa Dasmunsi and chief minister’s advisor Vem Narender Reddy called on them at his Banjara Hills residence on 12 March and invited them to join the grand old party.

The veteran leader and former minister was the president of the Pradesh Congress Committee in the undivided state of Andhra Pradesh.

Also Read: Congress, BRS, BJP finalise Telangana campaign plans for Lok Sabha polls

Keshava Rao’s decision

Keshava Rao announced the decision to leave the BRS and join the grand old party after a meeting with BRS supremo K Chandrashekar Rao on Thursday, 28 March.

A heated discussion is understood to have taken place when Keshava Rao told KCR that he had made up his mind to return to the Congress.

When Keshva Rao was trying to explain his reasons, KCR reportedly interrupted, asking him to spare him the talk.

KCR demanded to know why he was leaving when the party had made him a Rajya Sabha member twice, made his daughter the Hyderabad mayor, and given him a good position in the party.

Cut to the quick, Keshava Rao is understood to have left the meeting in a huff.

After the meeting, Keshava Rao said that he had decided to leave the BRS as he was pining for the days he had spent in the Congress.

“At the age of 80, I am longing to be back in the Congress,” he said, pointing out that he had spent most of his political life in the national party.

“I have very high regard for KCR. He treated me with respect. I discussed Kavitha’s arrest with KCR and felt that she had been framed in the case,” he said.

After the Congress began losing sheen, K Chandrashekar Rao — leading what was then the TRS — took over the leadership of the Telangana movement.

That was when Keshava Rao joined the pink party — in 2013. He was a Rajya Sabha member from the Congress back then.

After the creation of Telangana in 2014, KCR sent him to the Rajya Sabha afresh, and again in 2020.

He was made secretary general of the BRS and the parliamentary party leader. He has been its voice and identity in Delhi for the last 10 years.

First doubts over whether everything was alright in the BRS camp emerged when the ED arrested Kavitha at her residence on 15 March for her suspected involvement in the Delhi liquor scam.

When the legions of the party came out in support of Kavitha, Keshava Rao was nowhere to be seen — either in Hyderabad or in Delhi.

When BRS MPs attended a press conference after her arrest, Keshava Rao was conspicuous by his absence.

Also Read: Substantial BRS bond receipts redeemed at the altar of favour exchange

Siblings differ

According to sources, Vijayalaxmi is expected to don the Congress robes along with her father and 10 trusted corporators.

Vijayalaxmi later told reporters that she had decided to move to the Congress along with her father since it was always better to be in the ruling party, as it would become easy to get works done for Hyderabad city.

Keshava Rao’s son Viplav Kumar, however, differed from his father and sister.

He said he had decided to stay with the BRS and support KCR, and that he had nothing to do with their decision to quit the pink party and join the Congress.

According to sources, Revanth Reddy reached out to Keshava Rao and his daughter to smite a blow to the BRS in Hyderabad, where the Congress did not fare well in last year’s Assembly election.

If Keshava Rao and his daughter were on the Congress’ side, it might become easy for the chief minister to improve the party’s footprint in Lok Sabha constituencies spread across GHMC limits.

He has managed to onboard several city leaders. The BRS’ Khairtabad MLA Danam Nagender also joined the party recently, and he is now its candidate for the Secunderabad Lok Sabha seat.