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.