Denied ticket, Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy quits BJP, returns to Congress

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.

‘Anti-incumbency at the peak’

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, 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.

Reason to join BJP

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.

The earlier Congress stint

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.