BRS sitting MLA joins Congress

A sitting MLA of Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), who was dropped as the party candidate in the last-minute, joined the Congress party on Friday.

V.M. Abraham, the MLA from Alampur constituency in Jogulamba-Gadwal district, was welcomed into the party by state Congress chief A. Revanth Reddy.

The MLA defected to Congress just a few days before the Assembly elections.

In August, the BRS had named Abraham as its candidate from the same constituency. He had also started campaigning. However, in a last-minute change, the BRS replaced him with Vijayudu.

The BRS changed its candidate due to demand from a section of party leaders led by MLC Challa Venkatrami Reddy.

Abraham was elected from Alampur on BRS ticket in 2018, defeating his nearest rival Sampath Kumar of Congress by over 44,000 votes.

In the 2014 election, Abraham had contested on the ticket of Telugu Desam Party (TDP) but had lost to Sampath Kumar. Abraham had later switched loyalties to TRS (now BRS).