HYDERABAD: The Munugode bypoll verdict has dealt a major blow to Komatireddy brothers — Rajagopal Reddy and Venkat Reddy, whose future now looks as bleak as that of Congress party. In the run up to the byelection, which was necessitated by the resignation of Rajagopal Redddy, the siblings were in the news for all wrong reasons.
While Rajagopal faced the Opposition flak for joining BJP allegedly in a Rs 18,000 crore ‘quid pro quo’ deal, his elder brother and Bhongir MP Venkat Reddy was panned for threatening to leave the grand old party and shift his loyalties to the saffron brigade. Now that the bypoll is done and dusted, Venkat Reddy faces the wrath of Congress high command for allegedly backstabbing his own party and asking the party supporters to back Rajagopal in the bitterly-contested byelection.
Rajagopal’s wining streak in elections, be it as an MP, MLA, or an MLC, came to an end after he donned the saffron robes. Political observers believe that he has harmed his future political prospects by resigning and “going” for a byelection, without evaluating the outcome.
Venkat Reddy, on his part, not only launched an adverse campaign against Congress but also preferred to keep himself away from the 16-day tour of the State by Rahul Gandhi as part of his Bharat Jodo Yatra. Venkat Reddy, in fact, chose to go on a foreign trip.
“If the Lakshman Rekha is crossed and the committee finds it, there will definitely be action against him (Venkat Reddy). Keeping one leg in Congress and the other in another place, nahi chalega (won’t work). If the reply has not come (to show cause notice), the disciplinary committee will meet and take whatever action has to be taken. I want to make it absolutely clear that we are very serious. The show cause notice issued was not just for namesake, it was real,” said AICC general secretary in-charge communications, Jairam Ramesh.
He added that “people have to make up their minds, they cannot use Congress as a Railway platform”. Meanwhile, it is learnt that Venkat Reddy has already responded to the show cause notice but the contents of his reply have not been made public yet.
■ Rajagopal’s wining streak in elections, be it as an MP, MLA, or an MLC, came to an end after he donned the saffron robes
■ Venkat Reddy faces the wrath of Congress high command for allegedly asking the party supporters to back Rajagopal in the bypoll