Hyderabad: After at least two years of dilly-dallying and internal squabbles, Congress MLA from Munugode Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy on Tuesday quit the party. He is all set to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) soon. With this development, voices against party chief A Revanth Reddy are now likely to grow.
The BJP in Telangana even expects the grand old party to implode soon, followed by more defections from MLAs and others. Rajagopal Reddy is one of the many anti-Revanth voices from within, who has been vocal about it since long. The MLA, according to insiders, did his best to lobby for the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president’s position.
However, Revanth eventually was appointed, leading the Munugode MLA Rajagopal Reddy red with anger. Incidentally, the latter’s brother Komatireddy Venkat Reddy is the Congress Lok Sabha member of Parliament from Bhongir.
Since then, the Munugode MLA has been unhappy, and made no bones about it. Announcing his resignation on Tuesday, he brought up the same thing. “Being staunch Congress members, we are having to serve under those with no history in the party. It is insulting to work under those who are in no way affiliated with the party,” he said. Revanth, who is also a Lok Sabha member from the Malkajgiri seat, is an ex-Telugu Desam Party (TDP) member.
‘Feels like Congress is being run by Naidu through Revant’
In fact, Revanth Reddy’s TDP past is something that many in the Telangana Congress are unhappy about. “The talk is that Chandrababu Naidu is still running the show from behind,” remarked a senior ex-MLA who did not want to be named. The TPCC chief was the working president of the TDP in Telangana until he resigned and joined the grand old party.
In the 2014 Telangana polls, the TDP in alliance with the BJP managed to win 15 MLA seats. The saffron party won from five assembly seats. However, 12 of the TDP’s MLAs and its only member of Parliament soon defected to the ruling. Weakened, it was forced to align with the Congress in the 2018 elections. Many were not happy as the party was created in 1982 on an anti-Congress platform.
However, the 2018 were disastrous for the TDP, which could only win two MLA seats. Both the legislators soon joined the ruling TRS. The Congress’s fate was no different. Twelve of its 19 MLAs defected to the TRS, which won the polls by winn
Many from within the Congress were hopeful that Revanth’s leadership would change the party’s fortunes in Telangana. Under the leadership of N. Uttam Kumar Reddy before him, the Congress had lost two state polls, and every single major by-election since 2014. However, things have not changed much even now for the grand old party in Telangana.
“Under Revanth, we did not even put up a fight in Huzurabad. Granted that the seat is a stronghold of (ex-TRS minister) Eatala Rajender, we had come second in the 2018 elections. In the 2021 by-poll, we lost our deposit. We should have also won the Nagarjunasagar by-election,” said the unhappy Congress leader.
BJP relying on unhappy and angry Congress leaders to defect
Internal issues of the Congress are only likely to strengthen the BJP in Telangana, given that there is no space in the TRS. The Nagarjunasagar by-poll is a good example to see how the BJP still lacks credible or strong faces in the state. Unlike the Dubbaka by-election last year in 2020, where the BJP had a strong candidate, it was fight between the Congress and TRS.
A former Congress minister, Jana Reddy secured 70,504 votes, while TRS’s Nomula Bhagat won by securing 89,804 votes. The BJP’s Dr. P. Ravi could however only muster 7646 votes. Even the Huzurabad by-poll held last year is seen as a personal win for ex-TRS minister Eatala Rajender. He was removed from the cabinet last year, amid allegations of land encroachment of 66 acres of assigned land by the Jamuna Hatcheries Private Limited.
The firm is owned by his family. He was thrown out from the post of health minister during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Soon, the health portfolio was taken over by chief minister and TRS supremo K. Chandrasekhar Rao (now with Harish Rao). Both the Congress and BJP wooed him, and Eatala eventually chose the saffron party.
“The Congress is definitely going to implode and we will welcome anyone who wants to join. It will become clearer by October. The by-poll date will get clearer soon. From October there will be only one more year left for the state elections,” said a BJP leader.
It is to be seen how the Congress under Revanth recovers from the loss of Rajagopal Reddy leaving. Party leaders said that they are confident of winning the by-poll. “It won’t make much of a difference as we are very strong there. The candidate will be decided soon,” added another Congress leader from Telangana.
