DL Ravindra Reddy, who has been removed from the ministry, seems to have decided to continue his fight with chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy by staying put in the Congress, at least for now.
The sullen Congress MLA on Thursday made it clear that he would not leave the Congress even though his followers were exerting pressure on him to bid adieu to the party for the alleged injustice meted out to him in the party.
“It is true that several of my supporters are pressurising me to leave the Congress. But I don’t want to leave the Congress with which my political life has been intertwined for the past 35 years,” he told reporters at Mydukur in Kadapa district on Thursday.
Stating that he had been under tremendous pressure from his supporters to leave the Congress, the Mydukur MLA divulged that he would interact with his followers after the completion of the second spell of the budget session of the Assembly, which is scheduled to commence on June 10, to gather their opinions.
However, the senior Congress leader said, “After eliciting the views of my supporters in my constituency, I will decide my future course”.
Paeans to YSR: Ravindra Reddy’s sudden paeans to the late YS Rajasekhara Reddy are giving scope to speculation that he might board YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s ship prior to the 2014 elections.
Raising eyebrows in the Congress circles, he said on Thursday that YSR was his bosom friend and he never had any differences with him. It is learnt that Ravindra Reddy has started praising the late YSR only to keep his followers in the Congress in good humour.
“Following my dismissal from the cabinet, several of my supporters are pressurising me to join the YSRC as it is the only party which is popular in our district. But I am not ready to leave the Congress. Hence I have started praising the late YSR in order to keep my followers, who are fans of the late chief minister, in a cheerful mood,” he explained.
Rivals' prediction: Meanwhile, following the announcement by Ravindra Reddy that he would decide his future political course only after the completion of the budget session of the Assembly, Congress leaders wonder whether he would really continue in the Congress.
The Mydukur MLA’s detractors within his party from his native Kadapa district _ Kamalapuram legislator G Veerasiva Reddy and former MLA Nandyala Varadarajulu Reddy _ predict that Ravindra Reddy might leave the Congress and join the TDP soon.
In an informal chat with reporters at the CLP office on the Assembly premises here on Thursday, the two newly-turned pals of Kiran Kumar Reddy strongly supported the dismissal of Ravindra Reddy from the cabinet. They said that Ravindra Reddy had never worked for the benefit of the Congress and hence it did not matter if the Mydukur MLA continued in the party or not.
Varadarajulu Reddy felt that Ravindra Reddy might bid adieu to the Congress and join the TDP in the coming days. He claimed that Ravindra Reddy had planned to join the TDP when the then Congress strongman MV Mysoora Reddy had crossed over to the yellow party during 2004 polls. “But he dropped the idea and remained in the Congress when he was denied TDP ticket from Mydukur at that time,” Varadarajulu Reddy said.
The senior politico further felt that Ravindra Reddy might prefer the TDP to the YSRC as the yellow party leadership was also scouting for a suitable candidate for the party to contest the Kadapa Lok Sabha seat.