Rajagopal Reddy met former MP Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy, who joined the Congress on 2 July, and discussed his plans.
Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy. (File photo/Supplied)
Left out in the cold in the revamp of BJP leadership, former MLA Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy seems to be getting ready to pack his bags to return to the Congress fold.
There were reports that Rajagopal Reddy has been unhappy with the party leadership ignoring him after he lost the Munugode by-election last year. He joined hands with Huzurabad MLA Eatala Rajender, and both leaders raised a banner of revolt against the party leadership.
Their grievance was over the party’s strategies in taking on the BRS.
Lending credence to the reports that he might soon return to the Congress, Rajagopal Reddy, on Tuesday, 4 July, met former MP Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy, who joined the Congress on Sunday, 2 July, and discussed his plans.
Srinivasa Reddy joined the Congress in the presence of senior party leader Rahul Gandhi at a mega meeting in Khammam.
Rajagopal Reddy’s older brother and Bhongir MP Komatireddy Venkata Reddy took up his brother’s case with AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi recently.
He reportedly informed her of Ragajopal Reddy’s wish to return to the Congress. She asked him to speak to PCC president A Revanth Reddy and AICC in charge of Telangana, Mankrao Thakre, before getting back to her.
Rajagopal Reddy, before meeting senior BJP leader Amit Shah in Delhi recently, spoke of an open invitation from the Congress. He added that he had not made up his mind on returning to the Congress. Venkata Reddy also said recently that Rajagopal Reddy would soon be back in the Congress
Revanth Reddy, waving an olive branch at him, invited him and other Congress leaders who had joined the BJP to return home. He even said he would come down a few steps to facilitate their return to the Congress.
Revanth Reddy’s rivalry with the Komatireddy brothers is well known.
Both Eatala and Rajagopal Reddy dared to ask the BJP leadership to review the party’s Hindutva political line after the Congress’s thumping victory in the Karnataka Assembly elections.
Sensing a pro-Congress wave building up, they appeared confident that if they get short shrift from the BJP leadership, they had another door open for them.
They conveyed their thoughts to the BJP high command that they could not be taken for granted and they might look for greener pastures.
The dissidents — Eatala and Rajagopal — was only partially successful in Tuesday’s revamp. They could get Bandi Sanjay Kumar out but neither of them could get into his shoes.
The party leaders made them realise that the party cannot trust its state unit with newcomers with no ideological moorings, but were propelled only by the hatred towards KCR.
After the Delhi developments, Eatala looked happy, but Rajagopal Reddy seems to be searching for a new port to dock.
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