BJP’s Komatireddy Raj Gopal Reddy said he is confident of winning the Munugode by-election
Hyderabad:
Komatireddy Raj Gopal Reddy, the BJP candidate in a crucial by-election in Telangana, has taken a dig at the “Telangana model”, which Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, or KCR, often quotes to highlight the achievements of the TRS government.
Sri Reddy Munugode is contesting the bypoll. He contested and won the assembly elections as a Congress candidate, but resigned in August and joined the BJP. This necessitated a by-election, which Mr Reddy said he was confident of winning.
“What is the Telangana model? Land mafia, sand mafia, granite mafia, this is the Telangana model,” Sri Reddy told NDTV in his campaign programme.
Reddy said, “People want this election as there is no equality in the state for more than three years. The government has not given a single rupee for the development of the people. People have chosen me, develop this constituency.” It is my primary responsibility to do so.”
KCR’s Telangana Rashtra Samithi, or TRS, has alleged that Sri Reddy joined the BJP after his family-owned company won a coal mining contract worth Rs 18,000 crore from the central government.
The BJP leader denied the allegation.
“My family business is 36 years old. The company is run by my son. It got a tender… in Coal India, a global competitive tender. They have made it a big political issue. But here KCR is giving one A lot of contracts on nomination basis… They don’t have any proof that I have done anything wrong. Give proof, do it,” Sri Reddy said.
He said he decided not to join the TRS – which welcomed the devastating loss of 12 Congress MLAs to Sonia Gandhi’s party in the southern state in 2019 – as KCR’s party “has no moral and ethical qualities”. “
“Why should I have joined TRS? They killed the opposition party taking 12 MLAs. From that day I never wanted to join TRS. We are democracy, not dictatorship. Why did they snatch 12 MLAs? That’s it. That was a big mistake,” Sri Reddy said, however, adding that he has no ill-effects about the Congress.
“I have respect for Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. The thing is, when we lost 12 MLAs, people lost faith in the Congress party,” Reddy told NDTV.
Munugode has traditionally been known to support the Congress party. This does not bother Sri Reddy, who says that the people of the constituency really like him. “This is Congress territory. I got elected from the Congress. After I joined the BJP, those who trust me also became BJP supporters,” Reddy said.
The by-election is on November 3.