Musical chairs in Telangana, as leaders shift loyalties ahead of Munugode assembly bypoll

On Saturday, both TRS and Congress in the Munugode constituency were hit by fresh resignations. Former TRS MP from Bhongir, Dr Boora Narasaiah Goud, resigned from the party and is all set to join the BJP. Goud was elected TRS MP in 2014 but in 2019 he lost to Komatireddy Venkat Reddy of Congress, elder brother of BJP’s Munugode candidate Komatireddy Raj Gopal Reddy. The Munugode assembly segment is part of the Bhongir parliamentary constituency, and while BJP leaders claimed it was a big jolt to TRS, the latter claims Goud, a gastrointestinal surgeon who took part in the Telangana agitation, is a spent force who stopped attending TRS party activities after his loss in 2019, and was waiting to jump to any other party.

In another development on Saturday, former Congress leaders from Chandur Mandal in Munugode, Palle Ravi Kumar and his wife P Kalyani joined the TRS. They were welcomed by state IT Minister KT Rama Rao who is one of the in-charges in Chandur Mandal, and is camping there.

While Ravi Kumar’s wife P Kalyani is a sitting Mandal Praja Parishad (MPP) member from Chandur, he was hoping to be nominated as the Congress candidate for the Munugode bypoll. Although Ravi Kumar expressed his displeasure when the Congress nominated Palvai Sravanthi Reddy, the daughter of former MLA and ex- Rajya Sabha MP Palvai Govardhan Reddy, he and his wife attended a rally of Palvai Sravanthi, held at their home turf Chandur.

Meanwhile, TRS offered the disgruntled couple an opening and they joined. Ravi Kumar’s brother P Vinod is contesting on behalf of Telangana Jana Samithi, which has been floated by Convenor of the Telangana Joint Action Committee (TJAC) M Kodandaram, who had led the Telangana agitation.

The last date for withdrawal of nominations in October 17 and at least 130 candidates have filed nominations. Some of the candidates are from the BSP.

Many former students of Osmania University, Kakatiya University, and other educational institutions, who participated in the Telangana movement, are contesting in the bypoll. An official said that apart from the three main parties—BJP, BRS, and Congress—all others are mostly Independent candidates who had participated in the Telangana agitation.

The ruling TRS has fielded K Prabhakar Reddy, who had lost to Komatireddy Raj Gopal Reddy in the December 2018 assembly elections. Leaders of BRS, Congress and the BJP claimed that as the campaigning intensifies, more people from other parties are going to join them.