Hyderabad: Mr Kishore Kumar Reddy, the younger brother of former Congress Chief Minister of undivided AP Nallari Kiran Kumar Reddy, announced on Thursday that he was joining the ruling Telugu Desam in AP, which has hitherto been the arch rival of the Nallari family in the politics of their home district, Chittoor.
Mr Kiran Kumar Reddy had met AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi a few months ago in Delhi and had been given certain assurances, but this was not enough to prevent his brother from joining hands with the TD. Mr Kiran Kumar Reddy had tried to convince his brother to wait for some time before both of them could together join a ‘national party’.
Mr Kishore Reddy said that he was under pressure from people in his constituency to join the TD.
Speaking to this newspaper, Mr Kishore Kumar Reddy said he had spoken to Mr Chandrababu Naidu and conveyed the message that he was joining the Telugu Desam. A formal meeting will be organised in Pileru with all my supporters and we will all join."
Referring to his elder brother's advice to wait a little longer, Mr Kishore Kumar Reddy said, “National politics may suit my brother as he was the Chief Minister, but when I toured the Pileru constituency recently, 85 per cent of my supporters asked me to join the Telugu Desam.”
“We have to safeguard our political existence in the constituency which our family has served for 50 years. I will contest again as an independent next time if the YSRC takes advantage of the triangular contest, so I have decided to join TD to take on YSRC here. It is for my brother to decide his political future,” he told this newspaper.
Mr Kishore Reddy lost the last election which he contested from the Pileru Assembly segment from the Jai Samaikyandhra Party floated by his brother. The Vayalpadu and Pileru Assembly segments were merged after delimitation in 2009 into Pileru.
Chittoor politics was once dominated by Nallari Amarnath Reddy, father of Mr Kiran Kumar Reddy and Mr Kishore Kumar Reddy, and his main political rival was Mr Naidu.
According to APCC president N. Raghuveera Reddy, Mr Gandhi had assured Mr Kiran Kumar Reddy that he would be treated well keeping in mind that he was Chief Minister for three and a half years. “It seems he has still not made up his mind to rejoin the Congress,” Mr Raghuveera Reddy said.
