Union minister S Jaipal Reddy is understood to have decided to play an active role in the Telangana agitation henceforth to teach chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy a ‘fitting lesson’.
Jaipal Reddy, who had expressed his wish to actively participate in the statehood movement to senior minister K.Jana Reddy a week ago, has now taken a firm decision to take a plunge into the movement, sources said.
Following Kiran Reddy’s alleged “half-hearted invitation” to him to the launch of the metro rail project here on Sunday, the Union minister is understood to have firmed up his decision to give “T-pricks” to Kiran Reddy hereafter.
Sources said the minister had already begun making efforts to unite the Telangana leaders in the Congress to exert more pressure on the high command to achieve statehood for their region.
It is learnt that Jaipal Reddy is seething that Kiran tried to further humiliate him by making light of his absence at the programme.
“Instead of expressing regrets, the chief minister has made light of Jaipal Reddy’s absence. He even said that it was the duty of the officials concerned to invite the Union minister to the government programme and not his. Is it the way the chief minister should deal with the issue?” a Congress leader close to Jaipal Reddy asked.
Meanwhile, Congress MPs from the region expressed their solidarity with the Union minister in the latest row.
The MPs, who are criticising the chief minister on issues like diversion of Krishna water to the Handri-Neeva project in Rayalaseema, are now fully backing Jaipal Reddy.
“It is unfair for the chief minister not to send a proper invitation to Jaipal Reddy for the launch of Metro Rail Project. In fact, it was Reddy who played a key role in getting the Centre’s nod for the project. Kiran Reddy should have called up the Union minister and invited him to the programme,” Manda Jagannadham, MP, told Express.
According to him, as Jaipal Reddy’s Lok Sabha constituency (Chevella) falls in Ranga Reddy district, where the Metro Rail project is being taken up, the state government should have sent a proper invitation to him.
“YS Rajaskehara Reddy used to take the help of Jaipal Reddy on developmental projects. Though YSR had a running feud with Jaipal Reddy, he never publicly belittled the Union minister,” said the Nagarkurnool MP.
Some other Telangana leaders in the Congress, who suspect Kiran Reddy’s hand behind the shunting of Jaipal Reddy to a lesser imortant ministry, now want to join hands with the Union minister to take revenge against the chief minister.
The latest row between Kiran and Jaipal seems to have once again given ammunition to the detractors of Kiran in the Congress. The chief minister’s bete noire and health minister DL Ravindra Reddy came down heavily on Kiran Kumar Reddy for not sending a proper invitation to Jaipal Reddy to the launch of Metro Rail.
“Jaipal Reddy played a crucial role in getting the Centre’s nod for the Hyderabad Metro Rail project. It is unfortunate that the state government had sent the invitation to Jaipal Reddy by an attender. The state government is being run at the behest of a single person (Kiran Reddy),” Ravindra Reddy said.