Telangana Rashtra Samithi legislator and former deputy chief minister Tatikonda Rajaiah was on Monday forced to go on the defensive, a day after the pictures of his meeting with Brother Anil Kumar, noted evangelist and husband of YSR Telangana Party president Y S Sharmila, went viral in the social media.
The pictures were posted, apparently by followers of Sharmila, triggering speculations that Rajaiah might be holding confabulations with Anil Kumar to join the YSRTP. The report hit headlines in a section of digital media extensively.
According to Sharmila party sources, Rajaiah reportedly met Anil several times. However, it is not immediately known whether the picture was of the recent meeting or in the past and whether the meeting has any political significance or was purely for religious purpose.
Stung by the social media campaign, Rajaiah hurriedly held a press conference at Telangana Bhavan to refute the reports that he would be joining the YSRTP.
“The picture is two years old, when I happened to meet Anil Kumar at a Christian congregation. It was brought out to unnecessarily create rumours to ruin my political career,” he said.
He, however, admitted that he was a great fan of late Y S Rajasekhar Reddy and was close to his family.
“It was YSR who gave me political life. He gave me the Congress ticket. Later, I became closer to Jagan Mohan Reddy and resigned from the Congress due to Sonia Gandhi’s ill-treatment towards him,” he claimed.
He said he had distanced himself from Jagan Mohan Reddy on Telangana statehood issue and joined the TRS.
“Though I made my political beginning in the Congress, it was TRS which helped my political growth,” Rajaiah said.
The MLA from Station Ghanpur also said that he would remain in TRS all his life.
Born in the Madiga community, later converted to Christianity, Rajaiah joined the TRS party from Congress in 2011.
After the formation of a separate Telangana state, he was not only made the deputy chief minister along with Mahmood Ali but also was given the coveted health ministry.
He was sacked from the cabinet in January 2015, after allegations of corruption and irregularities in the appointment of paramedical staff cropped up. Since then, Rajaiah has been lying low in the party.
