How to stop a leader from joining BJP? BRS shows a way

AS PARTIES fight to retain their leaders ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, with most roads leading to the BJP, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) left no stone unturned on Wednesday to hold on to at least one name.

Amidst reports that Aroori Ramesh, the former Wardhannapet MLA of the BRS, which is down in the dumps since its Assembly poll loss last year, was joining the BJP, BRS workers allegedly “kidnapped” him and confined him till he dropped the plan.

The top BRS leadership, including former minister T Harish Rao, issued public appeals to Ramesh to stay back in the party. Meanwhile, videos did the rounds on social media of Ramesh surrounded by BRS workers, stopping him from getting into his car. The leaders are seen telling him that they will not allow him to join the BJP.

In a clarification issued later, Ramesh dismissed the rumours of his resignation from the BRS and said he was actually on his way to Hyderabad from Warangal to meet party president and former Telangana CM K Chandrashekar Rao. “I was not kidnapped and was just going to meet our party chief. I am firmly with the BRS,” he said.

What fanned the rumours, sources admitted, was the difficulty that both the BRS and BJP are facing in trying to find a candidate for the Warangal Lok Sabha seat. A BJP insider said: “We do not have a strong contender in the seat and hence we were looking to get Rameshji on board and field him.”

BJP leader Sita Ram Naik said, “Ramesh did meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah and talks were on to induct him into the BJP. He unconditionally agreed to join us.”

Post its loss to the Congress in the Assembly elections last year, the BRS has been seeing an exodus of leaders at multiple levels, from councillors to MPs. Three sitting MPs –