Hyderabad: A day after Medak District Congress committee president T Jayaprakash Reddy — alias Jagga Reddy — sent shock waves through Congress by entering the Lok Sabha by-election fray as a BJP candidate, the Congress suffered one more setback in the district.
Senior party leader and former minister Mohammad Fareeduddin on Thursday joined the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti.
Fareeduddin, who became disgruntled with Congress since he lost the 2009 assembly election, was keeping a low profile. He was unhappy that despite having a good base in Medak district, he was ignored by the party.
In the recent assembly and Lok Sabha elections other party leaders including former minister J Geeta Reddy had charged him with discreetly supporting the TRS.
Fareeduddin was formally welcomed in to TRS by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Reddy by offering him a pink khandwa or shoulder cloth. He expressed hope that Fareeduddin’s entry will help in further strengthening the party. The development came just a fortnight before the Medak Lok Sabha by elections.
Meanwhile the choice of Jagga Reddy as the BJP candidate for Medak Lok Sabha seat has left the party rank and file in the district highly disappointed. Some of the party leaders alleged that Jagga Reddy was given ticket under pressure from film star Pavan Kalyan. Like the film star Jagga Reddy had also strongly opposed the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh and formation of Telangana state.
Meanwhile TRS’ efforts to strengthen itself in Khammam district seem to bearing the fruits. Amid the speculations that the senior TDP leader from the district Tummala Nageshwara Rao was planning to join the TRS, Congress MLA from the district K Kanakaiah met the Chief Minister KCR. There were speculations that the MLA was planning to join the TRS.
