As many as 35 BRS leaders, including former MP Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy and ex-minister Telangana government Jupally Krishna Rao, announced their intention to join the Congress and met the party's top leadership here on Monday, sources said.

The Bharat Rashtra Samithi leaders will formally join the Congress at a public rally in Khammam, Telangana expected to be held in the first week of July with the likely presence of AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi. Reddy was a BRS MP from Khammam in the previous Lok Sabha polls.

The development comes ahead of Assembly elections in the state later this year.

The leaders met Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chief Rahul Gandhi in the presence of general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal and Telangana Congress chief A Revanth Reddy.

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