K Venkateshwarlu
Hyderabad
After social media predictions that five senior leaders will quit the Congress and join the Bharat Rashtra Samiti in August or September, the Congress brass have started hunting for the ‘gang of five’.
Going by social media posts, three leaders from the erstwhile Nalgonda district and two from the erstwhile Medak district are going to quit the Congress attracted by BRS supremo Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s ‘Reverse Akarsh’ operation.
However, the two leaders in reckoning from the erstwhile Nalgonda district have made it clear that they would not quit the Congress. One of them is former Minister TPCC senior vice-President Ramreddy Damodar Reddy and the other one is former TPCC president Nalgonda MP N. Uttam Kumar Reddy.Damodar Reddy responded immediately after social media posts came to his attention and said that he would not quit the party. He said that his enemies inside the party had been spreading fake news against him and that he would contest the Assembly elections only from the Suryapet constituency.
Meanwhile, Uttam Kumar Reddy and his wife strongly denied ‘malicious rumours’ suggesting that they were leaving the Congress to join the BRS. In a joint statement on Saturday, the couple condemned the rumours and attributed them to “a Congress leader who holds an important post inside the party”.
Uttam Kumar Reddy expressed anger over the ongoing campaign in social media that he would quit the Congress and join BRS party. He alleged that “a leader who is in a key position” had been making this campaign in social media. He said that it was not proper to indulge in such campaign to reduce his status in the party. He said that his opponents within the party were indulging in the campaign only to suppress him as well as his followers and associates. “I may be unhappy with the ongoing developments in the party. Still, I will not speak about the internal issues with the media and open forums,” he said.One more Congress leader from Nalgonda district and two from the Medak district have not responded so far.
Meanwhile, KCR inducted Bhongir-Yadadri DCC President Khumbam Anil Kumar Reddy into the BRS, fuelling speculations that some more Congress leaders would quit.
