WARANGAL: Hanamkonda district Congress committee (DCC) president Naini Rajendar Reddy on Tuesday gave an ultimatum that he will be forced to announce his future course of action if state Congress fails to take immediate action against Janga Raghava Reddy, former DCCB chairman, for maligning and weakening the party in Hanamkonda district.
With this, the ongoing political war between the two leaders for the past four years has reached a decisive stage. Rajendar Reddy, as DCC president, has gone on to issue a notice on Monday suspending Raghava Reddy from the party for anti-party activities.
The Hanamkonda DCC president recalls that Raghava Reddy contested from the Palakurthy assembly constituency in 2019 and lost to TRS’ Errabelli Dayakar Rao, who went on to become the panchayat raj minister. At the time, he (Rajendar) had sacrificed his Hanamkonda assembly seat on orders of Congress leadership, as the Congress party had been in alliance with other parties.
Rajendar Reddy asserts that when Congress has been passing through a difficult time, he has worked hard to strengthen the party in the Hanamkonda constituency. In the interim, Raghava Reddy, knowing that he cannot win from Palakurthy, is eyeing the Hanamkonda assembly segment ticket and holding party meetings without informing him, though he is the DCC president.
Rajendar Reddy underlined that this is leading to confusion within the party cadre and creating an impression of being a divided house, thus harming the interests of Congress. As DCC president, he has been compelled to suspend Raghava Reddy from the party, Rajendar Reddy underlined. He has also warned party cadre and all second rung leaders against cooperating with Raghava Reddy. Otherwise, they too will be suspended from Congress, Rajendar Reddy said.
Following this development, Janga Raghava Reddy has held a press conference asserting that he is the local candidate from Hanamkonda. Hence, he has a right to contest from the Hanamkonda constituency, while Rajendar Reddy, being a non-local, cannot expect the Congress ticket.
Raghava Reddy declared that the Congress party leadership is ready to give him the ticket to contest from the Hanamkonda constituency in the next assembly elections.
