VIJAYAWADA: At least half a dozen leaders, including former Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy and former Amalapuram MP GV Harsha Kumar, who had deserted the Congress after the state’s bifurcation, are set to rejoin the grand old party. Highly placed sources in the Congress told TNIE that ‘ghar wapsi’ was just around the corner.
The development comes in the wake of newly-appointed party state affairs in-charge Oommen Chandy’s visit to Vijayawada. The sources revealed that Kiran Kumar had met Congress president Rahul Gandhi a few months ago and expressed his desire to return to the party. It is, however, unlikely that he would be given any leadership role, the sources opined.
The move to welcome them back is aimed at improving the party’s image and gaining lost ground at the grassroots level. It is learnt that Oommen Chandy had sent feelers to at least four former leaders of the party including former MP Undavalli Arun Kumar to check if they would be willing to rejoin the party. The sources confirmed to TNIE that Undavalli had flatly rejected any such suggestion sticking to his decision to keep away from electoral politics.
Harsha Kumar, on the other hand, has decided to follow in the footsteps of Kiran Kumar Reddy. Former MP Konathala Ramakrishna is also said to be weighing his options. Interestingly, Kiran Kumar’s brother Kishore Kumar Reddy recently joined the Telugu Desam Party. Kiran had earlier harboured hopes of joining the BJP after the latter’s thumping victory in 2014. However, a senior leader of the BJP scuttled his moves considering the strained relationship between him and Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu who was at the time in NDA camp.