Hyderabad: D K Aruna, a senior Congress leader and former minister in Telangana, has quit the party and joined the BJP.

While most of the dejected Congress leaders were heading towards the ruling TRS, she is the first prominent leader to join the saffron camp.

In a development late on Tuesday night, Aruna joined the BJP in the presence of national party president Amit Shah in New Delhi.

According to party sources, she is likely to contest from Mahbubnagar Lok Sabha constituency.

Talking to the media on Wednesday, she said she decided to join the BJP to fight against TRS as Congress was weakened in the state by the wrongdoings of its own leaders.

“Congress leaders are acting at the behest of the TRS,” she said, alleging that the K Chandrasekhar Rao government had murdered democracy in the state.

Aruna comes from a powerful political family in the region and was elected from the Gadwal assembly constituency in the past. Her father and Congress MLA from Narayanpet C Narsi Reddy was killed along with eight others by Maoists on August 15, 2006.

Her husband DK Bharatsimha Reddy and brother-in-law D K Narasimha Reddy were also MLAs on different occasions. State BJP leaders were hopeful that her entry will boost the morale of the party rank and files especially in Mahbubnagar where the party fancies some change.

On the other hand, the BJP was facing its own share of problems. Angered that he was being kept out of the process of candidate selection, Telangana’s lone BJP MLA Raja Singh was publicly targeting his party colleagues.

While the state BJP President K Lakshman and other senior leaders including G Kishan Reddy were holding meetings with Shah and other senior leaders in Delhi, Singh was sulking in Hyderabad.

When Lakshman tweeted about the state core group meeting in Hyderabad for candidate selection, and Singh was not invited, the MLA replied sarcastically: “Again”, with emojis.

According to sources, Shah was in touch with Singh over the phone and even offered him a party ticket from Chevella or Zaheerabad constituency but he refused saying he was interested in contesting only from Secunderabad.

Singh also trolled another senior party colleague MLC N Ramchander Rao for his reported interest in securing a Lok Sabha ticket. Singh sent memes on WhatsApp to media and party colleagues ridiculing Rao pointing out that after the defeat in the recent assembly elections he now wants to fight Lok Sabha elections.

The meme carries the photo of Rao with text that reads: “I am a ghost. City presidentship is mine, MLC is mine and MP ticket is mine”.

Singh’s biggest grouse was that the other state leaders were treating him like a pariah.

Interestingly the ticket for Secunderabad Lok Sabha constituency, the only seat party won last time, has also become a bone of contention. While the party has made up its mind to drop senior-most leader Bandaru Dattatreya, four time winner, there were many contenders for the ticket including G Kishan Reddy and Lakshman.