Komatireddy Denies Rumors Of Defection To TRS

Senior Telangana Congress leader and Nalgonda MLA Komatireddy Venkat Reddy today clarified there was no political significance in his meeting Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao. He said that he had called on the minister only to extend birthday wishes, and also to thank Rao for acting on Nalgonda's irrigation projects.

Reacting sharply to rumours of his defecting to the TRS, Reddy asked mediapersons if he had told them that he was joining the ruling Party.

Political circles are agog with rumours that Reddy had already decided to join the TRS, and his meeting with Rao on Saturday strengthened them.

Reddy also alleged that some senior Congress leaders were just spending day-dreaming that they would be the Chief Ministerial candidate in the next elections and not doing any serious work, and lashed out at them for that. He said that the Party would not get strengthened if the its leadership just addressed press meets sitting in Gandhi Bhavan. He added that the Congress in Telangana needed immediate surgery, and that otherwise it should get ready for a post-mortem.

He specifically targeted TPCC chief Uttam Kumar Reddy. He alleged that the current TPCC chief was more inefficient than his predecessor Ponnala Lakshmaiah, and demanded that Uttam Kumar Reddy tender his resignation owning up for the failure of the Party in the recent elections. He said that the Party had faced defeats in the recent elections just because of its local leadership's laziness and lack of seriousness, and that he himself would either have made the Party win the elections or tendered his resignation owning responsibility for the defeats.

He said that his brother Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy lost the MP election in the 2014 general elections just because of Uttam Kumar Reddy's group politics. Uttam Kumar Reddy distributed money in three constituencies only to defeat Rajagopal Reddy, he asserted.

He demanded that the Party's high command announce its Chief Minister candidate's name now. He also suggested that the high command to appoint a person who fought for the sake of a separate Telangana state as the TPCC chief.

He said that he would address a letter to AICC chief Sonia Gandhi on the Party's condition in the state.