Hyderabad: Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s political opponent in Gajwel assembly constituency Vanteru Prathap Reddy joined the TRS on Friday. KCR’s son and TRS working president KT Rama Rao welcomed him into the party fold.
Vanteru Prathap Reddy had contested on behalf of Congress against KCR and lost by 58,290 votes in the recently conducted assembly elections. In 2014 state elections, Prathap Reddy was the TDP candidate against KCR and lost by a margin of 19,000 votes. Two months ago, Prathap Reddy had declared that his life time goal was to defeat KCR in Gajwel constituency. Gajwel is about 70km from Hyderabad.
During the last elections, Reddy made scathing verbal attacks on KCR and had also alleged that the CM’s nephew and irrigation minister Harish Rao had urged Reddy to defeat KCR and was also willing to extend any ‘financial assistance’, if necessary.
Pratap Reddy’s move to TRS, barely a month after elections, could be seen as one of the major strikes by the CM to decimate the opposition.
“CM’s plan is to slowly end the opposition. He has been in touch with few of our MLAs and leaders to move them to the party,” a senior Congress leader, who wished to unnamed, told News18.
In 2017, Prathap Reddy joined Congress along with Revanth Reddy. He was asked to join TRS many times by KCR, KTR and Harish Rao in the past. Reportedly, he wanted to become an MLA from Gujwel so he didn’t switch sides.
“People are with TRS and KCR. Rao’s developmental activities again made him the CM. I don’t have any personal rivalry with the chief minister. I want to develop my constituency. I realized that I want to work with KCR,” Prathap Reddy told after joining TRS.
As per sources, TRS has promised Prathap Reddy an MLC post or could also contest as an MLA in next polls from Gajwel if KCR shifts his focus completely on national politics, said sources.
(With inputs from PV Ramana Kumar)
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