Homecoming for Konda couple

They rejoin Congress in the presence of Digvijay Singh

September 05, 2013 01:00 am | Updated August 03, 2016 10:35 pm IST - HYDERABAD:

Konda Surekha and Konda Muralidhar Rao joining the Congress party in the presence of AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh and Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, in New Delhi on Wednesday.

Konda Surekha and Konda Muralidhar Rao joining the Congress party in the presence of AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh and Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, in New Delhi on Wednesday.

A month after severing ties with the YSR Congress, former Minister Konda Surekha and her husband Konda Muralidhar Rao returned to the Congress fold in the presence of AICC general secretary Digivijay Singh on Wednesday evening.

The Konda couple had quit the YSR Congress along with senior leaders after the party’s legislators resigned their membership protesting the Congress’ decision on bifurcation. They along with another senior leader K.K. Mahender Reddy first held discussions with Mr. Singh in the presence of the Chief Minister. Later, they were formally welcomed back into the party after Mr. Singh presented them Congress kanduva. It may be mentioned here that the YSR Congress suffered a setback in Telangana after its leadership decided to back the Samaikyandhra movement. Ms. Surekha, a staunch supporter of late Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, was a Minister in his Cabinet. She resigned her post after the death of YSR and announced her resolve to sail with Jaganmohan Reddy. She became the key member of the YSR Congress for close to two years but decided to part ways after the party changed its stand.

The trigger was the resignation of 16 YSR Congress MLAs protesting what they claimed the unilateral decision of the Congress in dividing the State. She lashed out at Mr. Jaganmohan Reddy and the YSR Congress accusing it of practising opportunistic politics.

Murmur of protest

Interestingly, several Congress leaders from Warangal had strongly opposed her re-entry into the party. Government Chief Whip Gandra Venkataramana Reddy, Ministers – Ponnala Lakshmaiah and Basavaraj Saraiah told the party leadership not to consider their plea to rejoin the party.

Mr. Mahender Reddy, on the other hand was with the TRS since its inception and switched his loyalty to the YSR Congress after he contested the 2009 Assembly elections as TRS rebel against K. Tarakarama Rao, son of TRS chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao, from the Sircilla constituency.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.