BJP forced to pick Jaggareddy for Medak bypolls

Hyderabad: Admitting to lack of interested candidates in the party, state BJP leaders said they had their reasons for selecting Jaggareddy to take on the TRS in the Lok Sabha bypoll in Medak. There were three rounds of deliberations at the state party headquarters, which took almost eight hours before word was sent to Mr Jaggareddy. The BJP leaders, who were part of the deliberations, told this correspondent that though their choice of selecting Mr Jaggareddy may run into controversy initially, they admitted they had no other choice. “We had originally thought of picking our own man and contacted them but they did not evince interest to contest fearing loss in the election to the TRS,” said a leader. He also said if they cannot put up a candidate it would damage the credentials of the party that is ruling the country.

“Then we discussed the possibility of fielding someone from Hyderabad city like Baddam Bal Reddy, but that could give an impression that we did not have a local man in Medak to fight.” “When we had almost finalised Anjireddy’s name, there was an objection from the TD. Virtually we did not have anyone from our party till Wednesday morning. We have been getting feelers from Mr Jaggareddy that if he is not chosen as the Congress candidate he may come to us and with time running out, finally we decided in his favour, he added.

He is a good candidate, even if he loses the bypoll, BJP will be benefitted in the district. He will be quite useful to us for he has resources, cadre, everything to take on TRS even in the future, the BJP state leader added.