Hyderabad: Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy met senior BJP leader and former Mahbubnagar Lok Sabha member A.P. Jithender Reddy at his Nandagiri Hills residence here on Thursday for about 30 minutes. The development assumes political significance, coming a day after the BJP denied the Mahbubnagar ticket to Jithender Reddy and selected D.K. Aruna in its second list.
Congress sources said that Revanth Reddy invited Jithender Reddy to join the Congress and reportedly assured him that he would be given due priority in the future. The party has declared Challa Vamshichand Reddy as its Mahbubnagar candidate.
Jithender Reddy, who first won the Lok Sabha seat as a BJP candidate in 1999, quit the party and joined TRS (now BRS) at the peak of Telangana statehood agitation in 2010. He contested as a TRS candidate and won from Mahbubnagar in 2014. The BRS denied him a ticket in 2019. Upset at this, he quit the BRS and made a BJP ghar wapsi in 2019 but did not contest.
He was in the race for the ticket this time but the BJP leadership chose Aruna again, who had joined the party from Congress in 2019 and had lost from Mahbubnagar.
Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, Jithender Reddy said, "Revanth Reddy and I belong to the same (undivided Mahaubnagar) district. We have cordial relations. It was a courtesy call. I am still in the BJP."
On the prospects of his joining Congress before the Lok Sabha elections, he said, "I have not quit BJP and I can't say what will happen in the future." On whether he would support the BJP or Congress candidate, he replied, "I can't comment. Let us see."
