HYDERABAD: TPCC’s star campaigner and Bhongir MP Komatireddy Venkat Reddy is understood to be extremely unhappy with the party’s high command not considering his name while forming two key panels — the Congress Working Committee and Central Election Committee.
What must have rankled the senior leader most was the fact that his Lok Sabha colleague N Uttam Kumar Reddy found a place in the Central Election Committee. After Uttam resigned as TPCC chief, Venkat Reddy competed for the coveted post along with A Revanth Reddy. However, the party’s high command chose the latter.
Later, Venkat Reddy kept all his hopes on a berth in the CWC but it also did not happen. Irked with the developments, Venkat Reddy is understood to be sulking. He did not attend the party’s executive meeting held on Tuesday to discuss the arrangements for the two-day CWC meeting in Hyderabad.
In a video clip, Venkat Reddy was heard saying to AICC secretary SA Sampath Kumar, who was trying to conciliate with him, “I will not come unless they include me in the list. We have decided in our family that I am not going to contest in the elections this time. Ultimately, it is the self-respect that matters.”
Later in the day, AICC Telangana in-charge Manikrao Thakre and CLP leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka also reached out to Venkat Reddy’s residence. Speaking to the media, they said that Venkat Reddy was not “sulking” as was being reported in the media. They claimed that they had visited Venkat Reddy on the latter’s invitation for lunch. Meanwhile, it is learnt that AICC general secretary KC Venugopal also telephoned Venkat Reddy to pacify him.
But, why was Venkat Reddy not in either of the two important committees? According to the party sources, the reason could be that Venkat Reddy met BJP bigwigs when the party was going through testing times. A senior leader said that when the ED was questioning the Gandhi family, Venkat Reddy called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and it was not an isolated incident. He also said that Venkat Reddy ran an adverse campaign against Congress during the Munugode by-election.