It is more or less confirmed that Telangana Congress MLA from Sangareddy Turpu Jayaprakash Reddy alias Jagga Reddy will join the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi very soon.
This was hinted at by Jagga Reddy himself while speaking to media in Gandhi Bhavan on Thursday.
“It will be decided between May 25 and 30 as to whether I will be in Gandhi Bhavan or Telangana Bhavan,” he told media.
He said he had received invitation from the relatives of TRS president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and his son K T Rama Rao.
“If the relatives meet me again and extend invitation to join the TRS, I will take a decision to shift loyalties to the TRS. Till then, all the talk about my defection to the TRS is rubbish,” he said.
He further said he had won the recent elections on his own strength rather than on the strength of the Congress party.
“I am not like other MLAs who won on party banner. I have grown as independent leader on my strength,” he said.
Jagga Reddy also made it clear that he would abide by the party decisions only up to 50 per cent.
“The remaining 50 per cent of the decisions are my own. This holds true for any party that I join. Even in Congress party, I follow my own decisions, rather than that of the party,” he said.
The Sangareddy MLA said the Congress in Telangana would survive and get back into the safe zone only if the United Progressive Alliance comes to power at the Centre.
“I don’t know whether the people of Telangana had got any benefit from the bifurcation of combined Andhra Pradesh or not, but the Congress has heavily lost politically. In the Congress party, it is difficult to reach the high command.
“We have to depend on the local leadership, but we are not sure whether our message will really reach the top,” Jagga Reddy observed.
