The second coming of Kiran Kumar Reddy: Out in the cold in Congress, ex-Andhra CM completes comeback

After joining BJP, Reddy blames the Congress high command’s “bad decisions” for the party’s decline.

Former Andhra Pradesh chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy joins Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the presence of Union Minister Pralhad Joshi and party MP Arun Singh, at BJP HQ in New Delhi. (PTI)

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After remaining relegated in the Congress for years, former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy started a new chapter in his political career on Friday as he joined the BJP. The 63-year-old Reddy, like A K Antony’s son Anil Antony the day before, launched a scathing attack on his former party that he has now quit twice in nine years.

Claiming that the Congress was “taking wrong decisions”, Reddy said, “If a mistake has been made, it should be acknowledged and efforts should be made to correct it. There is no such thing in Congress. Due to the Congress high command’s bad decisions, the party is losing everywhere.”

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When Reddy quit the party a month ago, he sent a one-line resignation letter to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge. Reddy was the Chief Minister when the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) pushed through the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh. He opposed the move both within and outside the Assembly, even protesting in New Delhi.

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Reddy was appointed Andhra CM on November 25, 2010, after the resignation of K Rosaiah, who held the fort for the Congress for over a year following the death of Y S Rajasekhara Reddy in a helicopter crash in September 2009. The selection of Reddy came as a surprise to many Congress insiders as he had never been a minister and was not known to be a mass leader.

With the Congress-led government at the Centre going ahead with the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, Reddy’s position in the party also became untenable. The bifurcation cost the Congress heavily in Andhra Pradesh. It suffered a huge exodus of leaders and the party has not won a single Lok Sabha or Assembly seat in Andhra Pradesh since then. Reddy too quit the Congress in 2014 to float his own outfit called the Jai Samaikya Andhra party. He fought the 2014 elections but could not make a mark.

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He returned to the Congress in 2018 expecting that he would be given an important organisational role but nothing came his way. Reddy was not invited to the Udaipur Chintan Shivir last year, surprising many leaders in the party. When the Andhra unit was revamped last year, Reddy was not entrusted with any key responsibility. Kharge appointed Gidugu Rudraraju as the Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) president, replacing Sake Sailajanath. It was seen as a deft move as Rudraraju is Brahmin, while Andhra politics is dominated by the Kamma, Reddy, and Kapu communities. Reddy was not made either a working president of the state unit or included in the 18-member Political Affairs Committee and found a place only in an APCC Coordination Committee.

Reddy is a four-time MLA who won from Vayalpadu (merged with the Pileru Assembly constituency) in the 1989, 1999, and 2004 Assembly elections.

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