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Former Achampet MLA Guvvala Balaraju, who recently quit the opposition Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) joined the BJP on Sunday, August 10. A two-time former MLA, Balaraju, joined the Telangana unit of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the presence of BJP state president N Ramchander Rao at the BJP office in Nampally.
Balaraju was one of the four BRS MLAs who figured in the horse-trading case in 2022. In October 2022, three Telangana BJP leaders, Ramachandra Bharati alias Satish Sharma, Nanda Kumar and Simhayaji Swamy were accused of offering Rs 100 crore to four BRS MLAs if they defected to the BJP.
An FIR was registered by the Hyderabad police based on Tandur BRS MLA Pilot Rohit Reddy. Alongside Rohit, Kollapur MLA Harshvardhan Reddy, Pinapaka MLA Rega Kantha Rao and then Achampet MLA Guvvala Balaraju was also propositioned by the BJP leaders.
While Balaraju stayed on with BRS for three more years, in August 2 of this year he resigned. In his letter to party president and former Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR), he stated that he decided to resign with a "heavy heart" after serving the party for nearly two decades.
Balaraju was elected from Achampet, a constituency reserved for Scheduled Castes, in 2014 and 2018. He, however, was defeated in 2023 by Chikkudu Vamshi Krishna of the Congress party.
Speaking at the welcome ceremony organised for Balaraju, Ramchander Rao claimed that the BJP is emerging as the “only viable alternative in Telangana and realising this, Balaraju joined the party.” He said the former MLA was also drawn to BJP by the good work done by the BJP led Union government.
BJP MP K Laxman, MLC Anji Reddy and other leaders participated in the programme.