Hyderabad: Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) outgoing MP A.P. Jithender Reddy on Wednesday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after he was denied ticket for next month's elections.

In a major setback to TRS, Jithender Reddy, who was leader of the TRS in Lok Sabha, formally joined the BJP in the presence of party President Amit Shah in New Delhi.

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Jithender Reddy was elected to Lok Sabha from Mahabubnagar on the BJP ticket in 1999. He later quit the BJP to join the TRS at the peak of Telangana movement. In 2014, he was elected from the same constituency as a TRS candidate. The Telangana Rashtra Samithi dropped him following allegations by some party candidates in the recent Assembly elections he did not extend the cooperation.

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 Polling for 17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana is scheduled in the first phase on April 11.