It has been more or less confirmed that former Lok Sabha member from Khammam Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy and former minister Jupally Krishna Rao will be joining the Congress party, most probably by next week.
There is also a talk that former MLA Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy, who defected from the Congress to the Bharatiya Janata Party, is also contemplating returning to the Congress. He has been keeping away from the party activities for quite some time.
Obviously, these latest defection of Ponguleti and Jupally have upset the BJP bosses, which was expecting that they would join their party and strengthen it in the districts where they are weak.
Now, the BJP leadership is once again contemplating using their old weapon to target these leaders who will be defecting to the Congress.
Sources said instructions have been issued to Enforcement Directorate authorities to conduct raids on the residences and business houses of Ponguleti and Jupally.
The ED might also target Rajagopal Reddy, who is said to be ditching the BJP and thinking of joining the Congress.
“One can expect simultaneous ED raids on the offices and residences of these leaders in the next few days,” sources said.
Meanwhile, the ED authorities have started conducting raids on 10 private medical colleges, including those belonging to the Bharat Rashtra Samithi leaders in Telangana on Wednesday.
These colleges include SVS, Kamineni, Pratima, Chalmeda Ananda Rao, Mediciti, MNR and Malla Reddy medical colleges, located in Hyderabad, Nalgonda, Mahabubnagar, Karimnagar and Warangal.
The ED raids are said to be based on a previous complaint given by Kaloji Health University in Warangal about swindling of funds by selling NRI quota seats in black and making money through illegal means.