Even as the Bharatiya Janata Party is struggling to find some strong and credible leaders contest the assembly elections in Telangana, the Congress party appears to be playing a mind game to demoralise the saffron party.
As former MLA from Munugode and BJP national executive committee member Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy resigned from the party and announced his decision to join the Congress in a day or two, there have been reports on the social media circles that some more senior leaders are also contemplating defecting to the Congress.
The first list of the BJP candidates for the assembly elections released last Sunday doesn’t include the names of several BJP leaders like former ministers D K Aruna and Marri Shashidhar Reddy, besides former MPs like A P Jitender Reddy, M Vijaya Shanti and Konda Vishweshwar Reddy, besides state BJP president G Kishan Reddy and Rajya Sabha member Dr K Laxman.
This led to the talk that some of them like Aruna, Vishweshwar Reddy, Shashidhar Reddy and Vijaya Shanti might be planning to return to the Congress on the lines of Rajagopal Reddy.
As the rumours turned out to be stronger, Aruna issued a statement on Thursday strongly condemning the reports. She alleged that they were part of the mind game being played by the Congress leaders.
Stating that there was no question of her joining the Congress, Aruna said she had complete faith in the leadership of Narendra Modi, who had respected her by giving her the BJP national vice-president post.
Apparently, the BJP national leadership wants Aruna to contest from Gadwal assembly seat, but she is more interested in fighting the Lok Sabha elections. So is the case with Jitender Reddy, who wants to try his luck from Mahabubnagar.
While Konda Vishweshwar Reddy was asked to contest from Tandur, he is said to be not interested. Similarly, there are reports that Vijayashanti, too, is reluctant to contest the assembly elections, but is more interested in fighting the Medak parliamentary elections.
The party did not consider the name of Shashidhar Reddy for contesting the elections at all and he is said to be sulking for not being offered any post. However, his son Aditya Reddy might be given the party ticket from Sanathnagar constituency, sources said.