HYDERABAD: Controversial Congress leader, Munudoge MLA Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy, it seems, will escape disciplinary action by his party after all. While the Congress State leadership had threatened Reddy with dire consequences for his outburst against the party, it does not seem to be serious about the same.
Recently, Rajgopal Reddy accused AICC in-charge for Telangana RC Khuntia and TPCC chief N Uttam Kumar Reddy of “destroying the party in the State” with their policies and decisions. A few months ago, he had made similar comments against the two leaders. However, so far no action has been taken against him in spite of a recommendation by the TPCC disciplinary action committee.
Except for party spokesperson Mallu Ravi expressing displeasure over Rajgopal’s comments and announcing that the matter would be taken up with the disciplinary committee, nothing much has been done so far. In fact, there is no discussion about the issue in the party forum or among the leaders.
After his earlier “offence” too, the disciplinary action committee sought an explanation from Rajagopal Reddy and directed him to appear before the panel to give his version. Rajgopal reportedly denied making derogatory comments against Khuntia and Uttam and put the entire blame on the media. Following this, no action was initiated against him.
Party sources said that the party high command was not taking action against Rajgopal, because if he is suspended or expelled from the party, it would give him a chance to join BJP without facing any trouble. They believe that Rajgopal Reddy wants the party to take action against him so that he can easily join BJP.
Currently, Rajgopal too is wary of making the first move as there is a good chance the Assembly Speaker could disqualify him as MLA if he joins BJP on his own. Winning the seat in a byelection might be too much of an effort for Rajagopal Reddy, hence he would rather wait for Congress to suspend him.
Rajgopal has been quite open about his support for BJP. He has claimed the saffron party is the only alternative to TRS. There was news that he would join BJP in the presence of party chief Amit Shah. However, this did not happen as BJP leadership was not ready to accept the conditions Rajgopal had put forward to them.