Former Andhra Pradesh minister Ravela Kishore Babu, former IAS officer Thota Chandrasekhar, and former IRS officer Chintala Partha Sarathi joined the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) on Monday in the presence of party chief and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.


At an event held at BRS headquarters in Telangana Bhavan, the three leaders, who were earlier with the Jana Sena Party (JSP) of actor-politician Pawan Kalyan, formally joined the BRS.






According to the IANS report, CM K Chandrasekhar Rao welcomed them into the BRS fold by offering them pink party scarves and announcing that Thota Chandrasekhar will be the President of the party's Andhra Pradesh unit.


Reportedly, Chandrasekhar hails from the Kapu community, which has a strong presence in Andhra Pradesh. He was a member of the YSRCP in 2014 and, after losing the Eluru Lok Sabha poll, joined the Jana Sena.


KCR, as K Chandrasekhar Rao is popularly known, said Kishore Babu, who worked with the Bahujan Samaj Party's founder, Kanshi Ram, and will play a key role at the national level in designing party policies and programmes for the empowerment of Dalits.


Kishore Babu, who was elected to the Andhra Pradesh Assembly from Prathipadu in 2014, had served as SC and ST welfare minister in the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) government headed by Chandrababu Naidu, but quit the party in 2019 and joined the JSP and later the BJP.


An All India Service officer from the 1987 batch, Kishore Babu, had worked closely with Kanshi Ram from 1996 to 2000. Parthasarathi had unsuccessfully contested from the Anakapalle Parliamentary constituency in 2019 on the JSP's ticket.


TJ Prakash, Kapu Nadu President T Ramesh Naidu, General Secretary G Srinivas Naidu, and AP Praja Sanghala JAC President Rama Rao also joined the BRS.


With this, Telangana's ruling party has made its first big foray outside the state after Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) became BRS to expand its activities to various states.


Also read | Andhra Pradesh Govt Bans Public Meetings, Roadshows After 11 Killed In 2 Separate Stampede Incidents


CM KCR last month launched BRS after the Election Commission gave its approval to the change of name. The BRS leader appealed to the people of Andhra Pradesh to come forward and become part of the BRS movement to bring a qualitative change to the country. He said those who become part of this movement would get the same respect enjoyed by participants in the freedom movement.


He also announced that BRS will launch its activities in 7-8 states after Sankranti. He said the party was ready to constitute state-level committees in Punjab, Haryana, Odisha, Maharashtra, and Karnataka.


(With IANS inputs)