He changed six parties in 14 years, joined the same party four times!!

Time was when turncoats and political defectors were called Ayarams and Gayarams after namesake MLAs from Haryana, changed parties like they changed undies. Now, Telangana politician Gaddam Vivek could well claim the credit for changing parties at the drop of the hat. In a political career spanning just 14 years, he changed parties six times, making critics say that his TV channel is titled V6 to denote the number of times he defected.

Son of illustrious Dalit leader G Venkat Swamy, Vivek entered politics in 2009, while his father was still a central minister, and contested and won as Peddapalli MP. In just four years, he left the Congress on June 2, 2013 and joined the BRS. When BRS denied him a ticket, he left it on March 31, 2014 and unsuccessfully contested from Peddapalli as a Congress candidate.

Barely two years later, he rejoined the BRS and was appointed advisor to KCR, who never believes in taking advice. In three years, he left the BRS on March 25, 2019, when it did not give him a Lok Sabha ticket and joined the BJP on August 9, 2019. The BJP appointed him to the Central Working Committee and made him manifesto committee chief.

The latest party-hopping happened on November 1, 2023. He resigned from the BJP after repeated denials that he was leaving the party. On November 2, he will join the Congress Party. Critics say that none can rival him in party hopping. Quite interestingly, his sibling G Vinod, stuck to the Congress party despite the party losing the elections in 2014 and 2018.