BackTDP Telangana leader Revanth Reddy told to clear rumours he met Congress leaders
TDP Telangana unit working president Revanth Reddy's rumoured meet with Congress leaders comes even as alliance partner BJP says it will contest next assembly elections on its own
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Hyderabad: The Telugu Desam Party’s (TDP) Telangana unit is in a flux. Its state unit working president A. Revanth Reddy is rumoured to have met the Congress leadership, while alliance partner Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) says it will contest the next assembly elections on its own.
The TDP leadership has asked Reddy to come clean on rumours that he met senior Congress functionaries. If at all Reddy does leave the TDP, it will be yet another blow to the party’s weakened state unit, after 12 of its 15 MLAs defected to the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) last year. L. Ramana, president of the TDP in Telangana, said the party has sought an explanation from him about the rumours.
Last week, Reddy had accused TDP cabinet ministers from Andhra Pradesh of colluding with the TRS to gain favours in state irrigation projects.
Another senior TDP leader, not wanting to be named, said that if at all Reddy wants to leave, he should have discussed it with the party. “We are saying that what is done is done. If he wants want to quit, then he should at least talk to us about it," he told Mint, adding the issue will be brought up once TDP’s national president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu returns from US on 27 October. Reddy could not be contacted for comment.
What has added to TDP’s heartburn is BJP leaders asserting their party will contest the 2019 assembly and Parliament elections alone, even though TDP and BJP are both part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). BJP leaders have been openly stating they see no prospects in going with the TDP in Telangana, which has put the latter in an awkward position.
E. Peddi Reddy, national spokesperson, TDP, questioned the BJP’s need to make such statements in spite of being in an alliance. “We are part of the central government and they are with us in AP. They must realise their blunder. These things are decided when elections are nearing," he told Mint.
“The BJP in Telangana is very clear that it wants to go alone in the next Parliament and state elections. As part of the political reorientation process that took place after the bifurcation of the state, the TDP has gotten confined to just AP," said A. Rakesh Reddy, BJP state spokesperson.
He went one step ahead to say that the BJP, which has five MLAs, is ready to welcome TDP leaders into its fold in “respectable positions", but that an alliance is not an option that the former is “in love with".
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