Telangana Congress suffers another blow: Former Minister DK Aruna joins BJP

DK Aruna, a 3-time MLA from Gadwal, is likely to contest from the Mahabubnagar Lok Sabha constituency.

news Lok Sabha 2019

Crisis-hit Telangana Congress suffered another blow with former minister, DK Aruna joining the BJP on Tuesday. Aruna was inducted into the party in the presence of BJP chief Amit Shah, National General Secretary Ram Madhav, Union Minister JP Nadda and others in New Delhi.

After joining the BJP, news agency ANI quoted her as saying, "Today, there's no hope for Congress to come to power in Telangana again. I joined BJP as there is a need for BJP to come to power there to fulfill the people's aspirations."

Aruna is likely to contest from Mahabubnagar Lok Sabha constituency against Vamshi Chand Reddy of the Congress. Though the sitting MP is Jithender Reddy from TRS, the party is yet to announce the candidates. Besides the MP seat, the BJP has also offered a cabinet berth, according to reports. According to reports, Aruna expressed her interest to contest from Mahabubnagar, which was denied by the Congress.

While a number of Telangana Congress leaders have defected to the ruling TRS recently, this was not an option for Aruna. During the 2018 Assembly Elections, DK Aruna had engaged in a verbal duel with Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. While Aruna alleged that intoxicated with power, KCR had lost his ‘mental balance’, the TRS leader countered her, threatening to expose her wrongdoings.

DK Aruna, a firebrand leader is a three-time MLA from Gadwal. She was a minister during YS Rajasekhar Reddy's term and went on to hold portfolios of Small Scale industries, Sugar, Khadi and Village Industries in Rosaiah's cabinet. Aruna later served as Information Minister in Kiran Kumar Reddy's government.

The daughter of former Congress MLA Chittem Narsi Reddy, she contested in the 2004 Assembly Elections on a Samajwadi Party ticket and won with a huge majority. She, however, switched to the Congress in 2009 and continued her winning streak until the recent Assembly Elections, where she was humbled by her nephew, Bandla Mohan Krishna Reddy of the TRS.

Aruna lost to Krishna by a margin of 28,260 votes. While Aruna received 72,155 votes, Krishna secured 1,00,415 votes.

In the 2018, Assembly elections, the Congress had won 19 of the 119 seats, however, 8 MLAs have defected to the ruling TRS party since.