Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) working president, K.T. Rama Rao has claimed that two Congress MPs in Telangana will leave the party before Rahul Gandhi’s padayatra enters the State.
In an informal chat with reporters in Hyderabad, he claimed he has credible information that two MPs of the Congress will leave the party but he doesn’t know which party they would join. On repeatedly asking whether they were looking at the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), now rechristened as Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS), he said he would not answer that but people would soon find out who they were and what their future political action will be.
Telangana Congress has three Parliament members including the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president, A. Revanth Reddy who represents the Malkajgiri constituency. Former PCC chief, N. Uttam Kumar Reddy represents the Nalgonda constituency while Komatireddy Venkata Reddy won from the Bhongir constituency.
Mr. Venkata Reddy has been staying away from the party activities ever since his brother Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy resigned as MLA from Munugode and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) necessitating a by-poll, which will be held on November 3. However, Mr. Venkata Reddy has several times clarified that he started his political journey as a student leader of the Congress’ student wing – National Students Union of India (NSUI) and would not leave the party.
However, he continued his hot-cold relationship with the party after Mr. Revanth Reddy was appointed as the TPCC chief. A strong contender for the post, Mr. Venkata Reddy accused the PCC president of buying the post with money. After secluding himself for sometime, he participated in several programmes with Mr. Revanth Reddy.
But the distance between them grew further when some unsavoury comments were made against him by some Congress leaders in the Munugode public meeting held after Rajgopal Reddy resigned from the Congress. Mr. Komatireddy demanded that leaders who abused him on from the stage should be expelled from the party or else he wouldn’t be part of the party campaign.
Speaking to The Hindu, Nalgonda MP Uttam Kumar Reddy dismissed the claims as an effort to grab media attention and create confusion among the Congress ranks. This only shows desperation on part of TRS leaders, he said adding that “No one would dare to approach me to leave the Congress.”
