Hyderabad: The Congress party in Telangana Wednesday received a shot in the arm as senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former minister Nagam Janardhan Reddy formally joined the party. He and other leaders were welcomed into the Congress fold by the party president Rahul Gandhi at the AICC headquarters in New Delhi.

Apart from Reddy from Nagarkurnool district, another senior BJP leader from Karimnagar district Adi Srinivas also joined the Congress.

However, the most surprising name in the list was that of GV Suryakiran, son of the revolutionary poet and singer Gaddar. While Gaddar, earlier a known sympathiser of Naxalites, always took an anti-establishment stand and campaigned for the poor and the landless and stayed away from the electoral politics, his son has now chosen to enter the electoral politics by joining the Congress party.

Reddy’s decision came as a jolt to the BJP, which had projected his entry into its fold in 2013 as a big achievement. However, for the last couple of years he has been keeping a low profile and staying away from the BJP programmes as he was not getting the due important and recognition from the BJP leaders.

Reddy was a veteran Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leader who joined the regional party at the time of its launch by film star-turned-politician NT Rama Rao in 1982 and was elected to the state assembly at least six times and also became a minister in the cabinets of NTR and N Chandrababu Naidu.

However, he distanced himself from the TDP due to its reluctance to support the demand for Telangana state. After heading his own party Telangana Nagara Samiti, Reddy later joined the BJP. He unsuccessfully fought the Lok Sabha elections from Nagarkurnool on BJP ticket while his son was fielded in the state assembly elections and he was also defeated.

Adi Srinivas had contested the assembly election from Vemulawada in Karimnagar district in 2014 as BJP candidate but he too fell out and now joined Congress.

Surya Kiran, who was a research associate in the National Institute of Fashion Designing in Hyderabad had earlier worked for TRS candidate in Malkajgiri constituency in 2014 and also campaigned for a BJP candidate in the legislative council election has now joined Congress. Party sources said he was likely to contest assembly election from Secunderabad Cantonment constituency next year.

Surya Kiran made the move at a time when his father was running a campaign against the TRS government under the banner of Telangana Mass and Social Organisations Forum.