Sangareddy legislator T. Jayaprakash Reddy, known for his controversial statements against his own party leaders, is planning to leave electoral politics for some time and is likely to field his wife Nirmala Jagga Reddy in next Assembly elections.
Mr. Reddy, who has been maintaining silence for the last two months after his sudden outbursts against PCC president A. Revanth Reddy and his style of functioning, has floated the idea of staying away from electoral politics in 2024 with his close followers who dissuaded him from taking any drastic step.
He offered his seat to some of his followers to contest on the Congress ticket if they were interested but none of them agreed to the idea of Mr. Reddy leaving active politics. However, he now plans to field his wife, Nirmala Jagga Reddy, who is also president of the District Congress Committee and has been active. “She is anyway active touring the district, meeting people and fighting on issues and there shouldn’t be any problem for her to win” seems to be his opinion.
Mr. Reddy, who has been maintaining that he would never join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) or the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), has been the punching bag for a section of Congress workers whenever he raised issues concerning the party and its strengths. On social media, he is accused of being a TRS covert whenever he spoke against the state leadership.
Sources said the reason behind his thinking is to escape pressure from the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) to switch over to its side before the elections. Mr. Reddy is the lone Congress MLA in the combined Medak district, which is the home district of the Chief Minister, K. Chandrashekhar Rao.
“He is a mass leader with none to match him in the newly carved Sangareddy district and TRS definitely wants him on its side to weaken the Congress and take on the BJP,” a close follower of Mr. Reddy said.
“But he has given a word to Rahul Gandhi that he would work to strengthen Congress despite the differences he has with the state leadership.” He also assured some senior leaders that he would work for the party in the district even if he is not contesting.
