At least 19 sarpanches (village heads) belonging to Congress, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), and Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) from Maharashtra's Buldhana district have joined K Chandrashekar Rao-led Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) in Hyderabad, a party functionary said on Tuesday.
BRS' Maharashtra Kisan cell chief Manik Kadam also said the highest number of sarpanches, whose tenure will end after 18 months, to have crossed over to BRS are from the Congress.
Of the 19 sarpanches, 12 belonged to Congress, six to Nationalist Congress Party, and another is a member of Prakash Ambedkar-led VBA. Three former sarpanches- two from Shiv Sena and one from Shetkari Sanghatna- have also switched over to the party led by the Telangana chief minister, as per a list shared by Kadam.
Speaking to PTI on BRS' expansion plan in Maharashtra, Kadam said, The party has so far registered details of 14.10 lakh workers across the state who will launch a campaign to attract more members to the party.
We have started grading constituencies based on the number of members we have in that specific area, he added. Kadam said offices of BRS in Pune and Aurangabad cities, which will act as regional party offices for western Maharashtra and Marathwada, respectively, will be made operational soon.