Hyderabad: In a jolt to the Congress, just ahead of the crucial Assembly elections, former Speaker of Undivided AP and senior leader Mr. K.R. Suresh Reddy announced his decision to join the TRS on September 12, in the presence of party president and Chief Minister Mr. K. Chandrasekhar Rao.
IT minister Mr K.T. Rama Rao along with former MLAs from Undivided Nizamabad district went to Mr Reddy’s residence on Friday and invited him to join the party on behalf of Mr K. Chandrasekhar Rao. Mr Reddy said he had decided to join the TRS for the development of the State and not for his political interests.
“I believe that all the schemes and initiatives undertaken by the TRS government should continue without any break for the good of the Telangana State. I feel the car (TRS symbol) should not get derailed at this juncture,” Mr Reddy said, addressing the media along with Mr Rama Rao on Friday.
Mr. Suresh Reddy had lost the Assembly elections in 2009 and 2014. Earlier, he had been elected thrice from Balkonda Assembly seat in Nizamabad district in 1989, 1994 and 1999.
After losing 2014 elections, Mr Reddy had been staying away from Congress party activities. In 2014, he was defeated by TRS candidate Mr. A. Jeevan Reddy from Armoor seat.
Interestingly, TRS sitting MLAs from Armoor, Mr. A. Jeevan Reddy and Balkonda Mr. V. Prashanth Reddy had also accompanied Mr. Rama Rao to the residence of Mr. Suresh Reddy. Both these sitting MLAs were given tickets on Thursday.
This gave scope for speculations that Mr. Reddy may be accommodated either from Armoor or Balkonda by replacing one of the sitting MLAs.
However, Mr. Suresh Reddy put these speculations to rest saying that he was joining TRS not to contest for Assembly seat but only to extend support to TRS chief Mr. K.Chandrasekhar Rao who had been toiling hard to keep Telangana State in the forefront in all the spheres for the past four years.
"The very fact that I have chosen to join TRS after the list of candidates were announced shows that I am not hankering for power", Mr Reddy remarked.
Mr Rama Rao said, "Suresh Reddy garu is a senior and respected leader. The party will honour him by giving him a suitable post at an appropriate time. Though he was with the Congress, KCR garu and TRS party as a whole shared a special bond with him. We worked together to achieve statehood for Telangana in individual capacities. Suresh Reddy garu too played a key role in Congress in his individual capacity for the cause of Telangana State."
