Adivasi leaders’ defection to cost Congress dearly?

ADILABAD: The Congress party that has been banking on its Adivasi voters for a win in the Adilabad Parliamentary constituency have now been put in a fix with several leaders from the community defecting to other parties.  

In the recently concluded Assembly elections, Congress had improved its vote share owing to the support of the Adivasi community. After the ruling TRS party allegedly failed to resolve the Adivasi-Lambada conflict, the former community began distancing itself from the pink party and ‘swore allegiance’ to its own Congress leaders.

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However, the party leaders from the community have been defecting one after the other to TRS and BJP. Asifabad MLA Attram Sakku, who won on the Congress ticket, has defected to TRS while Congress’ Soyam Bapu, who lost the contest by small margin, is expected to join the saffron party soon.