Published Sep 06, 2023 | 7:00 AM ⚊ Updated Sep 06, 2023 | 8:01 AM
File photo of Dr T Rajaiah. (Rajaiah.T/Facebook)
Leaders from other parties are looking at the Congress with growing interest in poll-bound Telangana.
Lately, Station Ghanpur MLA Dr T Rajaiah is understood to be contemplating joining the Congress, which is already in an upbeat mood with preparations for the CWC meeting on 16 September having already begun.
Though the BRS leader denied any such move, speculation is rife that in case Telangana Chief Minister and party chief K Chandrashekar Rao does not give him a ticket to contest the upcoming Assembly elections from Station Ghanpur, he might switch to the Congress.
He met CWC permanent invitee Damodar Raja Narasimha on Monday, 4 September, and reportedly discussed his political future with him.
Rajaiah, however, told reporters on Tuesday: “When I did not find my name in the list of candidates released by KCR [for the Assembly elections], it pained me. But there has been an assurance to me that I would be sent to the Legislative Council or to the Lok Sabha.”
He added: “Anyhow, there are indications that the names on the list might change. I prefer to wait.”
Rajaiah was speaking immediately after government chief whip Dasyam Vinay Bhaskar called on him.
Bhaskar later told reporters that his meeting with Rajaiah had no political significance. He had called on the MLA as a friend, he said.
But the fact that Vinay Bhaskar called on Rajaiah a day after the latter met Congress leader Raja Narasimha set off speculation that the BRS leader had brought an olive branch from KCR to pacify him.
Dr Rajaiah is unhappy that KCR replaced him with MLC Kadiam Srihari as the candidate for Station Ghanpur.
After not finding his name in the list of the candidates KCR had released, he felt as though a great calamity had befallen him.
It was in fact a double whammy for him. He was not renominated and, worse still, his arch-rival Kadiam Srihari had been chosen as the candidate.
Unable to overcome the grief that swamped him, he went to an Ambedkar statue, prostrated before it, and cried inconsolably. It was a major shock for him, and he was in no mood to consider the loss of the ticket a minor setback.
After recovering from the shock in quite a while, he began looking at the Congress. In the process, he met CWC member and former deputy chief minister Damodar Raja Narasimha and discussed his future with him.
Though it is not clear what the content of their discussions is, it is widely speculated that he wants to switch sides to the Congress in return for a ticket for Station Ghanpur.
The news that Rajaiah was showing interest in joining the Congress must have come as heartwarming news for the party’s leaders.
As the process has only just begun, the party leaders have no comments to make, lest any premature statement should result in the operation going sour.
Meanwhile, the Congress leaders hope that more leaders will find their way to Gandhi Bhavan sooner than later with AICC deciding to hold its first meeting of the CWC, after its reconstitution. They are expecting disgruntled leaders not only from the BRS but also from the BJP.
In fact, suspended BJP state vice-president Yennam Srinivasa Reddy has also dropped ample hints that he would soon be joining the Congress.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, he trained his guns at the BJP leadership for suspending him. “The state unit of the party does not bother about Telangana and its welfare. It is acting like Dhritarashtra. The situation changed after the Farm House incident in Hyderabad on 26 October last year, when BJP emissaries tried to coax BRS MLAs into defecting,” he said.
He added that the BJP had pulled the wool over the eyes of former MLA Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy by claiming that he was sure to retain Munugode if he joined the BJP. The result was otherwise, he said, pointing out that people believed that the BRS and the BJP were two sides of the same coin.
He advised, BJP MLA Eatala Rajender to wake up at least now and make the right decision about his political future.
Meanwhile, the preparations for holding the CWC meeting in Hyderabad have begun. The Congress has sought permission to hold the public meeting on 18 September at either Parade Grounds, LB Stadium, or at a place on the city’s outskirts.
Before the executive of the TPCC began on Tuesday evening to discuss the preparations for the CWC meeting, TPCC president A Revanth Reddy made an appeal to the party workers to make the two-day extended CWC meeting and Congress programmes the following day a resounding success.
He said Congress general secretary KC Venugopal will arrive in Hyderabad on Wednesday to take stock of the situation for conducting the CWC meeting. “The public meeting will see an attendance of 10 lakh people where party senior leader Sonia Gandhi will release five guarantees to the people of Telangana,” he said.
