Rajgopal Quits BJP, Set to Rejoin Congress

HYDERABAD: The BJP’s Telangana state poll campaign suffered a major dent on Wednesday as former MLA Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy announced his resignation from the party, ahead of an expected return to the Congress in the presence of Rahul Gandhi on October 27 in New Delhi.

Addressing a press conference after tendering his resignation, Rajgopal Reddy said he would contest on a Congress ticket from Munugode, and not LB Nagar, as was being speculated. He said that he was also ready to contest from Gajwel, along with Munugode, if the Congress high command sought to pit him against Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao.

Rajgopal Reddy said he would give a “return gift” to Chandrashekar Rao by defeating him in Gajwel, and also dared Rao to contest against him in Munugode.

Rajgopal Reddy won the Munugode Assembly constituency in 2018 on a Congress ticket, but quit the party for the BJP in August 2022, forcing a bypoll in Munugode in November 2022. However, he lost the bypoll to the BRS candidate by over 10,000 votes.

The former MLA said he quit the Congress, believing it had weakened in the state and that only the BJP could dethrone the BRS. “BJP emerging victorious in Dubbak and Huzurabad bypolls made me believe that BJP emerged as a strong alternative to the BRS in Telangana,” he said, emphasising that his sole political aim was to “unseat the BRS and save Telangana”.

As the BJP started going soft on the BRS after the Munugode bypoll, Rajgopal said he could not stay in the party, citing the failure of the Central government to initiate action against K. Chandrashekar Rao over corruption and also the failure to arrest K. Kavitha in the Delhi excise policy scam, despite ample proofs of her malpractice.

He said this convinced the people of Telangana that BRS and BJP were the same.

“After the Congress victory in recent Assembly polls in Karnataka, people of Telangana have decided to bring the Congress to power in the state. Today, Congress has emerged stronger in Telangana. Only the Congress has the power to dethrone BRS government. For that reason, I decided to rejoin Congress,” Rajgopal Reddy said.

In his resignation letter to the BJP, Rajgopal Reddy wrote: “There is severe anti-incumbency against the BRS government. It is clear that people of Telangana want change. Telangana should be freed from KCR's family rule. I think my ambition will be fulfilled in five weeks. I never aspired for positions. I strived for the interests of Telangana.”