In a setback to Opposition BRS in Telangana, the party’s Lok Sabha MP from Peddapalle (SC) B Venkatesh Netha switched over to the Congress on Tuesday (February 6). Netha joined the grand old party in the national capital in the presence of Congress general secretary KC Venugopal, Chief Minister Revanth Reddy and other leaders, party sources said.
Soon after joining the party, Venkatesh Netha along with Revanth Reddy and other leaders called on Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, they added.
Venkatesh Netha, a first-time MP, had served in the state excise department before taking the political plunge in 2018. He had unsuccessfully contested the 2018 Telangana Assembly elections on a Congress ticket. However, he later joined BRS (then TRS) and got elected to the Lok Sabha from Peddapalle (SC) constituency in 2019.
Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, who is also president of Congress in Telangana, is currently on a visit to Delhi.
He met Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi in Delhi on Monday and urged her to contest the coming Lok Sabha polls from Telangana.
The state Congress had earlier passed a resolution requesting Sonia Gandhi to contest from the state.
(With PTI inputs)
