Former IPS officer and president of the State unit of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) till the other other day, R.S. Praveen Kumar joined Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) along with a large number of his supporters including functionaries of BSP in the presence of BRS president and former Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao at Gajwel on Monday.
Speaking after joining the party, Mr. Praveen Kumar said Telangana ‘vadam’ (ideology) and Bahujana ‘vadam’ would gel like Pranahitha and Godavari rivers and Tungabhadra and Krishna rivers. He thanked the BRS leaders for acknowledging that he, along with huge bahujan support base, were joining the party when those who enjoyed power and posts were leaving it. He had no other option but to quit the BSP as party chief Mayawati had tried to pressurise him to scrap the poll alliance entered into with BRS in Telangana following the coercive tactics of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership. He had taken to the path of politics not to amass wealth but to serve people in every possible capacity, he claimed.
The former IPS officer alleged that Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy was trying to threaten him with the talk of being answerable to the people of Telangana for his decision to join BRS and that he too was the son of the soil of Palamuru. “I am not ready to be a sheep by joining the herd migrating into Congress, though they have opened the gates. There’s no selfish motive behind my move to join BRS except the mission of working for the betterment of bahujan lives,” Mr. Praveen Kumar said.
BRS president K. Chandrasekhar Rao and former IPS officer R.S. Praveen Kumar exchanging greetings after the latter joined the regional party on Monday. | Photo Credit: By Arrangement
Earlier, Mr. Praveen Kumar was given a rousing welcome at Telangana Bhavan the headquarters of BRS before proceeding to Gajwel. Speaking there, he said he was not the one who could be bought over with packages and in case that was his motive he would have as well joined the Congress. He said he too was a Palamuru’s son and had grown up in Nadigadda and suggested Mr. Revanth Reddy to stop making such threats.
Only those who were falling to the threats of Congress party and those with selfish motives were joining the ruling party, he said, asking the BRS leadership to protect all those who had come along with him as they were not the poor ideologically, though they might be poor economically.
Former legislators S. Niranjan Reddy, Balka Suman, Guvvala Balaraju, Dr. Methuku Anand, Marri Janardhan Reddy and others were present.
