Hyderabad: Senior Congress leader and MLC T. Jeevan Reddy has expressed ire at his own party's leadership for encouraging the defection of MLAs from the BRS.
In a letter addressed to AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, the MLC voiced his frustration over what he termed as favouritism towards the defector MLAs. He accused Jagtial MLA Dr M. Sanjay Kumar, who recently joined the Congress from the BRS, of being involved in the murder of his close aide Ganga Reddy in Jagtial. The MLC pointed out that he had opposed the entry of Sanjay Kumar into the Congress.
Addressing a press conference at the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) office on Thursday, Jeevan Reddy questioned the party’s decision to give high-ranking positions to defectors, including appointing BRS Banswada MLA Pocharam Srinivas Reddy as agriculture adviser while ignoring party loyalists.
"The Congress leadership in the state is doing exactly what former Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao did when the BRS was in power," he said, referring to defections and asked, “How is this justified."
Questioning the need to admit defectors, Jeevan Reddy asked: " Is this the democratic governance that Rahul Gandhi promised?"
He alleged that Srinivas Reddy was behind a group of 10 BRS MLAs who defected to the Congress and was encouraging them to take control of constituencies at the expense of local Congress leaders.
