NALGONDA: Days after declaring openly that he would work under the leadership of TPCC chief N Uttam Kumar Reddy, his detractor and Nalgonda MLA Komatireddy Venkat Reddy on Tuesday began “acting independently” in the Congress.Even as Uttam made it clear that so far the TPCC leadership had not decided whom to field from which constituency in the next elections, Venkat Reddy, who had aspired to the TPCC president post till a few days ago, now started making contradictory statements on the matter.
As if he were at the helm of state Congress affairs, the former minister at first said Nalgonda municipal chairperson Boddupalli Laxmi, whose husband Srinivas was brutally murdered recently, would contest the Nalgonda Assembly seat, which Venkat Reddy is holding now, in the next polls. He then claimed that he would be fielded for the Nalgonda Lok Sabha seat. Later, he retracted and said as Laxmi was not interested in contesting the Nalgonda Assembly seat and the party would nominate a youth to contest the seat.
Much to the chagrin of the TPCC president, Venkat Reddy further announced that his brother Rajgopal Reddy would contest the Bhongir Lok Sabha seat. By contesting the Bhongir and Nalgonda LS seats, his brother and he would ensure Congress’ victory in all Assembly segments of two LS constituencies.
In fact, when the AICC high command recently issued orders continuing Uttam in the TPCC chief’s post, Venkat Reddy declared that he would work under the leadership of Uttam as per party national president Rahul Gandhi’s orders.