The announcement on June 26 that former minister Jupally Krishna Rao, ex-MP Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy and 30 other leaders were deserting the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) for the Congress in Telangana has given a boost to the grand old party ahead of assembly elections due by the year-end.

After back-to-back meetings between president Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi and other senior party leaders in New Delhi, Rahul welcomed the BRS defectors, led by Srinivasa Reddy, at a large rally in Khammam on July 2. Krishsna Rao and others are to be welcomed formally at another rally in Mahbubnagar later. At the Khammam rally, Rahul mocked the BRS as “BJP Rishtedaar Samithi” and claimed that a Congress win in the Telangana assembly election was a certainty. “The resounding victory of the Congress in Karnataka was propelled by poor people, farmers, labourers, youth, Dalits and minorities vexed with misrule there. The same thing is bound to happen here,” Rahul said. He promised to provide Rs 4,000