KCR turns Telugu lands 'Congress-mukt'

rao and reddy

On June 15, the two Telugu states of Bharat will be well and truly Congress-mukt, and Narendra Modi can thank Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) for that. On that day, the lone Congres Lok Sabha MP from the erstwhile united Andhra Pradesh, Gutha Sukhender Reddy, will officially crossover to the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS).

Asianet Newsablereported about the contractor-turned-Congressman's Reddy's possible defection last week.

KCR's clarion call for a 'reunification' of Telangana forces under the TRS umbrella to create what he calls Bangaru Telangana, or Golden Telangana seems to be having the desired effect.

In the 2014 general election, in the successor state of Andhra Pradesh, the Congress drew a blank. The only Congress candidate to manage a win in the face of a TRS 'pink Tsunami' was Sukhender Reddy from Nalgonda in Telangana.

A strong leader in the district, the Congress veteran met chief minister KCR yesterday and finalised his defection.

Reddy confirmed this while speaking to Asianet Newsable today.

“I don’t want my Nalgonda constituency to lag behind when the rest of Telangana is marching ahead,” Reddy said. According to Reddy, the situation in the Congress is hopelessly uninspiring.

“Chaos prevails in the party, both in Hyderabad and Delhi. The Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) is perpetually fighting internal battles. The high command in Delhi is clueless about what it should do. I don't want to sacrifice the development of Nalgonda at the altar of Congress in-fighting," Reddy added.

Alongside Reddy, Miriyalguda Congress MLA N Bhaskar Rao is also likely to join the TRS on the same day. According to TRS sources, another vocal Congress MLA, Komatireddy Venkata Reddy will follow suit. He has been served a show cause notice for attacking the state Congress leadership.

Similarly, industrialist and former Congress MP, G Vivek, and his brother G Vinod, a former Congress minister are expected hitch their wagon to TRS in the next few days.

KCR won over the brothers by installing a statue, on the banks of Hussainsagar lake, of their father G Venkataswamy who was a minister in the Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and Narasimha Rao cabinets.

Interestingly, the Venkataswamy family owns V6, a very popular television channel in Telangana.