KHAMMAM: Differences surfaced in the ruling BRS during a meeting of party workers in the Wyra constituency on Friday. Party MLA Ramulu Naik openly attacked Transport Minister Puvvada Ajay Kumar for allegedly interfering in the selection of Dalit Bandhu beneficiaries in the constituency. Ramulu Naik kept quiet after his name was dropped from the list of candidates announced by BRS supremo and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and actively participated in all party activities. The CM named former MLA B Madanlal in place of Naik.
Ramulu Naik worked silently for the party and refrained from blaming anyone after being dropped from the list. At one stage, he even warned his followers who raised slogans against the party's high command for not announcing his name. However, on Friday, the MLA who won as an independent candidate in the 2018 elections and later joined the BRS, blamed Minister Ajay Kumar for the denial of the ticket to him by the party supremo. Ramulu Naik went on to say that he fell out of favour with the CM because of false reports given by Ajay Kumar.
Warning the minister to confine himself to his Khammam constituency alone, the MLA accused the former of plotting to ensure his own victory and defeat of the remaining nine BRS candidates in the district. Naik asserted that tribal voters would give a befitting lesson to the minister in the coming elections for undermining his political future.
Ramlu Naik was the first leader in the erstwhile Khammam district where all the 10 MLAs are in the BRS to express his resentment openly against the minister. Though there is dissidence within the ruling party, the leaders are refraining from open rebellion against the party. His public outbursts do not portend well for the party which hopes to return to power for the third consecutive time, according to political observers in the district.