HYDERABAD: Apparently fearing a defeat in the byelection if he resigned as MLA to join the BJP, Congress MLA from Munugode Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy is said to have decided, yet again, to not quit either his Assembly seat or the party.
The MLA, according to sources, was in a Catch 22 situation as the BJP which he wanted to join was insisting that he resign from his Assembly seat. If he does that, the TRS will make all-out efforts to win the ensuing bypoll.
The TRS has even floated rumours that Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao himself might join the fray in Munugode to avoid a repeat of Huzurabad. Irrespective of who the opponent is, the experience of Huzurabad where hundreds of crores of rupees were spent by the contestants, is said to have influenced Rajgopal Reddy’s decision.
BJP leaders who are in touch with the Congress MLA told Deccan Chronicle that he was not keen on facing a bypoll and that the party leadership had made resignation from the Assembly a precondition to extend Rajgopal Reddy an invitation to join the party. “Unlike Rajender who the people believed was a victim of Chandrashekar Rao’s authoritarianism, Rajgopal Reddy has no strong reason to go to the electorate,” a BJP leader pointed out.
In the meantime, a compromise formula seems to have been worked out according to which Rajgopal Reddy would intensify his efforts to show the Congress and its leadership, in particular Pradesh Congress Committee chief A. Revanth Reddy, in poor light.
This was evident from his announcement on Sunday that the BJP alone could defeat the TRS. He went on to say that he was not ready to be lectured on morals by people who came out of jail, an indirect reference to the cash for vote case involving Revanth Reddy.
Though the MLA claimed he held the press conference to clear the air on his joining the BJP, Rajgopal Reddy appeared confused and even could not hide his doubts over getting re-elected from Munugode in bypoll. “Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao was deeply hurt over the Dubbak and Huzurabad bypoll results and wants to square it off by forcing a byelection in Munugode and winning it,” Rajgopal Reddy said adding that he did not want to be a pawn in the Chief Minister’s strategy.
At the press conference held in his residence here, Rajagopal Reddy said he was not inclined to go for a bypoll but would go by the mood of his constituents. “I never criticised Sonia Gandhi or Rahul Gandhi and have due respect for them,” he said, adding that his sole objective was to save democracy by defeating the TRS.
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