Former minister and BJP MLA Eatala Rajender has sought to dismiss reports about shifting party loyalties stating that it was “not as easy as changing clothes”. “I had never changed parties but I was thrown out of a party after working for two decades when the BJP took me into its fold and the central leadership has put focus on TS,” he said, on Tuesday.
“Like any other party, there are differences of opinion and there will be issues. But, I wish to clarify I never went to Delhi without an invitation. I only spoke about political scenario when asked and did not speak about any personality. The BJP is a national party and it will take its own time to sort out issues,” Mr. Rajender told a press conference at his residence.
“The party cadre have been waiting patiently for the last 45 years and our only objective is to defeat the BRS in the next election. Our party has been winning bypolls since 2019. It is growing stronger at the grassroots with Union Ministers and MPs touring the constituencies, even while the BRS has been losing out,” he claimed.
The Huzurabad MLA asserted that neither he had any enemies nor had encouraged groups in the party and that the purported surge in Congress popularity was only seen in media stories. He also demanded that Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao apologise for his MLC P. Kaushik Reddy’s intemperate remarks on the Mudiraj community and charged that the latter had been going on a rampage in the constituency targeting his supporters with the support of the police.
“KCR should solve the problems of the unemployed youth, farmers, self-help groups, employees and other sections before he crows about the TS model of governance in other states or he will face people’s wrath soon,” he asserted and criticised the restrictions on entry into Secretariat for MLAs and the media.
Earlier, his wife Jamuna Rajender told a press conference that her husband had never lobbied for any post. “He will work sincerely in whichever party he is in because people are the same and they will vote out any government if they wished to. There is no bigger reward than the Huzurabad people reelecting him despite misuse of official machinery and a lot of money distributed,” she said.
She demanded the dismissal of Mr. Koushik Reddy from the MLC post for his “high-handedness, brazen corruption and objectionable behaviour” towards BCs, officials, women, farmers and even public representatives. The MLC had the obvious backing of ‘Pragati Bhavan’ and Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao.
“KCR has been trying to crush us and since he could not succeed politically, he has been trying to hit us financially by targeting our businesses. We had 10 lakh chicks in our poultry and this has come down to about 1.5 lakh, but, we are not going get cowed down and will fight against this regime democratically,” she said.
