Former Telangana president of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) RS Praveen Kumar joined the opposition Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) on Monday, March 18. BRS president K Chandrashekar Rao welcomed Praveen Kumar and a few other BSP members into his party formally at his farmhouse in Erravalli. Praveen Kumar had quit the BSP on March 16, days after forming an alliance with the BRS and even announcing their seat sharing agreement for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. While quitting BSP, Praveen Kumar said the BJP had exerted pressure on him through the BSP national leadership to end the alliance with BRS. 

Speaking to the media, Praveen Kumar said that CM Revanth Reddy had previously offered him the post of chairman of the Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC), but he had rejected it. The management of TSPSC under the previous BRS government had come under severe criticism over alleged mismanagement of government job recruitments and a paper leak case. Both Congress and RS Praveen Kumar had blamed the BRS government for the fiasco, and the TSPSC team was reconstituted after Congress came to power. 

“It is true that I rejected the post. CM Revanth Reddy also said that I have to answer to the public if I join BRS. Is that a warning? Do the people of Telangana have no freedom?” Praveen Kumar questioned.

Responding to allegations that he was offered a “package” (money from the BRS), Praveen Kumar said, “If I am the kind of person who could be bought, I could have joined the ruling Congress party. They would have offered me a good position too. I am not among the herd who want to protect their illegal assets and are waiting at the gates of the Congress party. I believe in the revival of Telangana and I want to be a part of it.” 

Praveen Kumar is a former IPS officer who served as the Secretary of Telangana social welfare schools for nearly a decade before opting for voluntary retirement and entering politics. He coined the anti-caste term Swaero, a term used as an aspirational identity by students and alumni of social welfare schools as an additional name to their given names, to fight stigma against their caste identities.