KCR's opponent shocks Congress, walks over to TRS

SANGAREDDY: In a surprise development and a double whammy to the Congress in Medak distirct, Congress leader T Narasa Reddy, who had contested against TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao in the Gajwel Assembly constituency in the recent elections, joined the TRS on Monday.

The development has come as a shock to the district Congress leaders, who are yet come to terms with the party's humiliating defeat at the hands of the TRS.

Reddy joined the pink party in the presence of TRS top leaders K Kesava Rao and T Harish Rao at the Telangana Bhavan, headquarters of TRS in Hyderabad. Along with Narasa Reddy, three ZPTC members, 32 MPTC members and 50 village sarpanches from Medak district belonging to Congress party also joined the TRS.

During the run-up to the elections, Narasa Reddy was confident of defeating the TRS chief in Gajwel, from where he had got elected in the 2009 elecions after the constituency was denotified from a reserved constituency and made a general constituency.

However, in the 2014 elections, he got relegated to the third position, as the contest for the MLA seat turned out to be between KCR and his TDP rival V Pratap Reddy.

Later, Narasa Reddy told that he had quit the Congress and joined the TRS as he strongly believed that development of Gajwel constituency could be achieved only with KCR at the helm of affairs.

'Now that he is going to be the Chief Minister of Telangana state, Gajwel can be sure of a better future and I will do my bit for its development,' he said.

Now, with the TRS set to form the Government with absolute majority and the Congress being one of the several opposition parties, many leaders of the Grand Old Party are now considering to jump the ship.

Many Congress men in Medak district seem ready to change their party colours, claiming they too respected the people's mandate.

According to sources in the Congress, many village sarpanches and newly-elected MPTC members are contemplating to join the TRS in the near future.

On the other hand, a sense of disenchantment is apparent among the Congress leaders from the district. 'We lacked a strong leadership when it mattered and when our party was in power in the state. Now, God knows what will be our position in the opposition,' a Congress leader said.

Meanwhile, those in the Congress, who averse to joining the TRS, are eying the TDP, the BJP and even the Jana Sena Party, floated by actor-turned-politico Pawan Kalyan.

Former MLA Toorpu Jayaprakash Reddy had indicated that he desired to quit the Congress, met Pawan Kalyan on Monday and expressed his desire to work with Pawan in future. In fact, Jagga Reddy had started his career with BJP and still maintains a good rapport with leaders of the saffron party.

Those close to Jagga Reddy say that former MLA is moving close to the BJP to secure his political future and that in all likelihood may announce his decision on his future course of action in a week or two.