Hyderabad: Former Member of Parliament Konda Vishweshwar Reddy said his fight was against the ‘king’, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, and the ‘crown prince’, party working president K.T. Rama Rao, and not against the TRS candidate for the Chevella seat.
He was talking to this correspondent in the backdrop of speculation that Congress MLA and former minister Sabitha Indra Reddy could defect to the TRS along with her son Karthik Reddy. Mr Vishweshwar Reddy, had won the Chevella seat for the TRS in 2014 and then joined the Congress last year. He is standing from Chevella again this year.
Asked what his chances of winning would be if Ms Reddy did join the TRS, as her family has a firm grip over Chevella, Maheswaram and Tandur Assembly segments under Chevella Lok Sabha constituency, he said it would not have much impact.
He said India has seen considerable change in political dynamics at the village level.
“In earlier days the entire village would vote for a single party following the diktat of the elder who had a grip over the village. Now there is no such trend in the villages. The people look at the leader who has easy accessibility and also his response towards their grievances,” Mr Konda Reddy said.
Mr Reddy said his family, too, had played a vital role in the Telangana movement. His father, a retired chief justice, was one of the think tanks of separate Telangana and had encouraged P. Indra Reddy, the late husband of Ms Sabitha.
Generally, the Congress is slow to reach the people, but the Progressive Telangana Foundation which he had founded reaches the people at rapid speed to resolve issues they may have and extend welfare to the needy, he said.
