It appears the Congress party high command has decided to take it easy with party MP from Bhongir parliamentary constituency Komatireddy Venkat Reddy, who is refusing to cooperate with the party in the by-elections to Munugode assembly seat.
Venkat Reddy is of the view that he might be suspended from the party for his stubborn stand and non-cooperation and that would make things easy for him to shift his loyalties to the Bharatiya Janata Party.
But, the high command doesn’t want to give him any such chance. Since Venkat Reddy himself has declared that he won’t campaign for the party in Munugode by-poll, the party has decided to ignore him and focus on other leaders who would campaign in the by-polls.
Since Venkat Reddy is keeping away from the party programme in the by-poll, the high command will also not consult him in the selection of candidate. This made the things easy for Pradesh Congress Committee president A Revanth Reddy to pick up the candidate.
At the same time, none of the Congress leaders would make any comments against Venkat Reddy and in fact, as Revanth Reddy did, they would only make only positive statements about his loyalty. This will help the party cadre in Nalgonda cooperate with the official candidate in the by-elections.
“If Venkat Reddy is really interested in continuing in the party, he would have ended the controversy after Revanth’s apology. The fact that he is still dragging the issue indicates he is not in a mood to continue in the party,” a Congress source said.
Since Venkat Reddy has not yet joined the BJP, his followers would not directly campaign for his brother Rajagopal Reddy. That will indirectly help the Congress, the sources added.
