He will formally return to the Congress on 27 October in the presence of Congress's top leader Rahul Gandhi in Delhi.
Published Oct 25, 2023 | 3:08 PM ⚊ Updated Oct 25, 2023 | 3:08 PM
The by-election for the Munugode Assembly seat was triggered by the resignation of Congress legislator Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy. (krgreddy/Facebook)
Days after the BJP excluded him in its first list of candidates for the 30 November Telangana Assembly polls, maverick leader Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy resigned from the party on Wednesday, 25 October.
The former MP, who fought a fierce electoral battle against the BRS for the Munugode Assembly seat last year on a BJP ticket, is all set to do a prodigal son and return to the Congress on Friday in the presence of Congress top leader Rahul Gandhi in Delhi.
In a statement released in Hyderabad on Wednesday, he said: “If I were in BJP or have decided to join the Congress, my aim remains the same: To defeat the corrupt BRS government in the state.”
According to him, his aim since the beginning was to free the state from the vice-like grip of the family of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, popularly known as KCR.
Rajagopal said: “Now the moment is arriving in just five weeks. The anti-incumbency against KCR is at its peak. The people are looking for a change. The BJP, which held out a promise that it would emerge as an alternative to the BRS, has slowed down. Now the only alternative against the BRS is the Congress. I have decided to follow the aspirations of the people.”
The former MP said that the people had grown suspicious of whether the BJP would take action against the KCR government, which had been steeped in a quagmire of corruption. The Congress has quickly usurped the space the BJP has vacated and has now become an alternative to the BRS, he contended.
In a recent interview with the South First, Rajagopal Reddy said that he had noticed the momentum of the BJP’s campaign against KCR slowing down and that it did not augur well for the party.
He had said that he joined the saffron party under the impression that it was the only party that could take KCR on, but it appeared that it suddenly began playing second fiddle to it.
The Congress is expected to field him for the Assembly from Munugode, his home constituency.
కార్యకర్తలే నా బలం
అభిమానులే నా ఊపిరి
వారి ఆకాంక్షలే నా ఆశయం
పదవులు నాకేం కొత్త కాదు.
ప్రజల కోసమే నా నిర్ణయం.
నా కార్యకర్తలు, అభిమానులందరి అభిప్రాయాల మేరకు కాంగ్రెస్లో చేరాలని తీసుకున్న నా నిర్ణయానికి అందరి ఆశీస్సులు ఉంటాయని ఆశిస్తూ..
మీ
కోమటిరెడ్డి రాజ్ గోపాల్ రెడ్డి— Komatireddy Raj Gopal Reddy (@rajgopalreddy_K) October 25, 2023
Rajagopal Reddy, who was Congress MLA from Munugode earlier, left the grand old party, resigned his seat and fought the by-election on a BJP ticket last November. After Rajagopal Reddy lost the battle for Munugode, he went into a kind of political exile, not taking much interest in BJP activities.
There had been talk now and then that he would return to the Congress. His brother and Nalgonda MP Komatireddy Venkata Reddy had said that Rajagopal would return to Congress sooner rather than later. But Rajagopal Reddy took his time to make a decision.
Rajagopal, who had been toying with the idea of joining the BRS even when he was Congress MLA from Munugode, left the grand old party unable to adjust with state president A Revanth Reddy.
Rajagopal is a leader who has set his eyes on the chief minister’s chair. When he saw the space became too crowded in the Congress with Revanth Reddy firmly entrenched and emerging as the front runner, he decided to test the waters in the saffron party.
With the writing on the wall became clear to him, he came in touch with the BJP and was ready to join its ranks in return for an assurance that he would be made the president of the state unit when the party’s national leadership began looking for someone to replace the then incumbent Dr K Laxman.
When there was no such assurance forthcoming from the saffron party, he deferred his decision.
As soon as the party began gaining strength after Karimnagar MP Bandi Sanjay Kumar took over as the president of the BJP, Rajagopal again began showing interest in the saffron party.
Bandi Sanjay infused a new lease of life into the sinews of the party cadre and soon an impression began gaining ground that the BJP was rising to a stage where it could challenge the BRS.
At that time, the Congress was in a limbo, neither moving forward nor backwards, with most of the leaders reconciled to the fact it was destined to remain an Opposition party forever.
It was then that the BJP saw him as a potential candidate to build an atmosphere that the tide of public opinion was turning in favour of the saffron party.
By then, it had already picked up Huzurabad and Dubbaka Assembly seats in by-elections and had caused a severe haemorrhage of votes from the BRS vote bank in Hyderabad in the GHMC elections.
The saffron party appeared to have decided that one more such victory would keep the party ahead of the Congress and emerge as a major force to face the BRS.
The party, finding Rajagopal as the most vulnerable MLA in the Congress then, cajoled him into leaving the party and joining its ranks. Rajagopal, who had by then been having a flaming row with Revanth Reddy, decided to take the plunge.
He resigned from the Assembly and the Congress in August 2022 and joined the BJP. At that time, he said that the Congress was not in a position to take on KCR and that the BJP was the only alternative to the BRS, then TRS, in the state.
In the byelection that followed for Munugode in November 2022, he contested as a BJP candidate but lost to Kusukuntla Prabhakar Reddy of the BRS.
After losing the Munugode byelection, the former legislator became very dissatisfied with how he was treated in the saffron party.
By then, MLA Eatala Rajender, formerly of the BRS, was also getting a little stifled in the party even though he had proved his worth by winning the Huzurabad byelection.
The dissident camp, whose voices were muted in the beginning, began growing louder which resulted in the Union home minister calling them to Delhi and listening to their grievances.
Eatala Rajender was gunning for Bandi Sanjay as he had set his eyes on the position with a long-term view of becoming the chief minister, but Rajagopal Reddy, on the contrary, was very vocal about what he considered the grey areas of the party — like the soft line it had adopted towards the BRS.
In fact, at the meeting with Amit Shah, both the leaders, especially Rajagopal, asked why the party was slowing down the momentum and going soft on the BRS.
They also sought to know why no action was being taken against KCR’s daughter K Kavitha for her alleged involvement in the Delhi liquor scam, despite both the CBI and Enforcement Directorate having questioned her.
