Hyderabad: In a significant development, former Member of Parliament Vivek has left the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and joined the Indian National Congress. In a letter addressed to Telangana BJP president G. Kishan Reddy, Vivek expressed his decision to resign from the BJP “with a heavy heart.”
Vivek later met with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi at the Novotel Hotel in Shamshabad, where he officially joined the Congress party. Accompanied by his son Vamsi Krishna, the former MP held discussions with Rahul Gandhi, who is currently campaigning for the party in Telangana. The meeting was also attended by Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president A. Revanth Reddy and other party leaders.
Revanth Reddy, addressing reporters, stated that Vivek’s entry into the Congress would further strengthen the party’s efforts to dislodge the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) from power in the region.
Vivek emphasized that his decision to join the Congress was not driven by a desire for a post or electoral ticket but by the aim of working towards removing the KCR government from power. He accused the KCR government of serving its family’s interests for the past decade, rather than focusing on the welfare of the people.
Speculation had been circulating for several weeks that Vivek was considering a return to the Congress party. It is also likely that his son will receive a Congress ticket to contest the November 30 Assembly election.
Vivek, the son of Congress leader and former Union minister late G. Venkataswamy, had left the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (now BRS) in 2019 to join the BJP. He had resigned as an advisor to the Telangana government and left the ruling party after being denied a ticket to contest from the Peddapalli Lok Sabha seat.
Vivek, an industrialist, has changed his political affiliations at least six times. He was elected to Parliament in 2009 from the Peddapalli constituency. He later joined TRS to exert pressure on the Congress regarding the demand for Telangana statehood. After the Telangana Bill was passed in Parliament in 2014, he returned to Congress. He again joined TRS in 2016 and subsequently left the party in 2019 to align with the BJP.
Vivek’s departure from the BJP comes less than a week after another senior leader, Komatireddy Raj Gopal Reddy, returned to the Congress. Raj Gopal Reddy had resigned from Congress to join the BJP last year but was unable to retain the Munugode Assembly seat as the saffron party’s candidate in the by-election.