KARIMNAGAR: In a major setback to BJP, the vice-chairman of the Karimnagar District Cooperative Central Bank (KDCCB) Pingali Ramesh and former vice president of the Mandal Praja Parishad (MPP) Chukka Ranjith joined the TRS in Huzurabad on Sunday. Both of them had joined the BJP with former Health Minister Eatala Rajender in June. Sources say that Finance Minister T Harish Rao has been instrumental in garnering support of the constituents and local leaders.

With Harish Rao’s renewed efforts to win back the voters and members in Huzurabad, a number of TRS members who had joined the BJP with Rajender are coming back to the pink party. Initially, the TRS leader in five mandals followed Rajender in joining the saffron party, but everyone except Kamalapur MPP president Thaduka Rani has joined the TRS.

Speaking at the press conference, Pingali Ramesh stated that he was joining the TRS again on the basis of work the pink party has done for the welfare of Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes.Sources say that the TRS has been successful in containing the efforts by Congress and BJP to gain support in the constituency. The TRS inducted Padi Koushik Reddy, the Congress candidate in 2018 Assembly polls. Meanwhile, Rajender’s close associates claimed that such strategies won’t work in Huzurabad and claimed that the former Minister’s popularity is higher than that of TRS and Congress.