Jolt to Telangana BJP as Raj Gopal Reddy decides to join Cong

Hyderabad: In a big jolt to BJP in Telangana ahead of the Assembly elections, former MLA and member of the saffron party’s national executive, Komatireddy Raj Gopal Reddy on Wednesday resigned from the party and announced that he will join the Congress.

He said in a statement that people of Telangana now see Congress as an alternative to Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and respecting the people’s wish, he decided to join the party.

Raj Gopal Reddy had quit Congress to join the BJP in August last year. The MLA from Mungode also resigned from Assembly, necessitating the by-election. The industrialist politician had joined the BJP amid much fanfare at a public meeting in Mungode in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah in August.

He entered the fray as a BJP candidate but lost the bypoll held late last year.

He claimed that the only aim of his return to the Congress is to liberate Telangana from the ‘corrupt, anarchic and undemocratic’ rule of KCR’s family.

The former MLA stated that one-and-a-half years ago BJP had emerged as an alternative to the BRS but due to subsequent political developments it weakened.

He remarked that the political equations changed in the state as the Centre did not fulfill the people’s desire that it take against the KCR government for its rampant corruption.

Raj Gopal Reddy said that in Munugode bypoll, 100 MLAs of BRS and another 100 senior leaders campaigned against him, spent hundreds of

Reddy, who is the brother of Congress MP from Bhongir Komatireddy Venkat Reddy, was not happy with the BJP leadership for the last few months. He along with MLA Eatala Rajender was summoned by the BJP leadership to Delhi and the leadership tried to pacify him.

A former MP from Bhongir, Raj Gopal Reddy was recently appointed as a member of national executive of the BJP. He, however, was staying away from party activities.

He was reportedly keen to contest the ensuing Assembly election from LB Nagar constituency. His name was missing from the first list of candidates announced by the BJP on Sunday.

–IANS