ADILABAD: Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) MLA Koneru Konappa who contested and won 2014 Assembly elections on a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) ticket, is now facing criticism for his remarks against the BSP. Konappa, along with another MLA A. Indrakaran Reddy, currently the forest minister, joined the TRS just after winning on BSP tickets.
A few days ago, an audio went viral in which Konappa's associate was heard threatening the TRS leaders who were planning to join the BSP from Bejjur mandal. In the audio, the supporter of Konappa threatened to crush the persons who were planning to join the BSP and said the local MLA had already told the police to keep a close watch on such leaders.
It may be mentioned that Bejjur PACS chairman Arshad Husain resigned from the TRS along with his 400 supporters and joined the BSP in the presence of its state coordinator R.S. Praveen Kumar at a meeting held in Adilabad on August 28.
Actually, Arshad Hussain was a close associate of Konappa for the last 20 years but they developed differences over political issues and selection of party candidates for fielding in the local body elections.
Now, the BSP cadre and leaders are making photographs of Konappa and Indrakaran Reddy wearing BSP kanduva and showing victory signs after winning the elections in 2014 go viral on social media.
It is said Konappa is not happy with the new development of his close associates and some supporters joining the BSP and thus the BSP getting a foothold in his constituency. BSP leaders, in their social media posts, say Konappa has forgotten that it was the BSP that gave him political life when the Congress denied him a party ticket to contest the elections in 2014 and is now threatening the leaders for joining the BSP.
In his speech recently, Praveen Kumar said it was a constitutional right of anybody to join any political party of his choice and warned Konappa to stage a massive dharna in front of his house if he continued to threaten BSP cadres and leaders. Praveen Kumar said Konappa was forgetting the fact that he had contested on the BSP ticket and won the elections in the past.
On the other hand, there is no cordial relation between Konappa and Indrakaran Reddy for more than one year since the time Konappa’s brother Krishna allegedly attacked the forest staff at Sarasala.
