Hyderabad: The Congress does not appear to be serious on forcing a bypoll to the Kodangal Assembly seat represented by Mr A. Revanth Reddy, who joined the party from the Telugu Desam, fearing a TRS victory in the run-up to the 2019 elections.
According to State Congress sources, the issue of Mr Revanth Reddy pressing for his resignation came up for discussion at an AICC meeting in Delhi recently, where it was opined that the party should not insist on the legislator meeting TS Speaker S. Madhusudhana Chary and tendering his resignation letter.
Mr Revanth Reddy had only submitted the letter to the TD office secretary in Amaravati last week but has not followed the formalities of resigning from the Assembly. The TS Assembly Speaker’s office has stated it has not received any letter of resignation from Mr Revanth Reddy.
No leader was willing to come on record on the matter, except senior Congress legislator D.K. Aruna who said in the Assembly lobbies on Wednesday that a bypoll at Kodangal may not come about. She too refrained from giving a valid reason for her statement.
She only said that if there would a bypoll at Kodangal, the Speaker ensure that bypolls are also held in the other Assembly seats from where Congress, TD and YSRC legislators had defected to the TRS. TPCC sources said the TRS had chalked out plans to ensure a massive win from Kodangal to give an impression before the 2019 polls that it is unstoppable in the case.
In case Mr Revanth Reddy, who had declared that he would contest from the seat “forever”, loses, it would adversely affect the fortunes of the Congress. Sources said that neither the Congress nor Mr Revanth Reddy would talk about the resignation episode.
