BJP faces flak over Raghunandan’s candidature in Dubbak by-poll 

Kamalakar Reddy has demanded that the party reconsider Raghunandan Rao's candidature for the Dubbak by-election

Siddipet: The BJP suffered a setback ahead of the Dubbak by-poll when senior party leader from Dubbak Assembly constituency, Thota Kamalakar Reddy, launched a scathing attack against party nominee M Raghunandan Rao on Wednesday.

Kamalakar Reddy has demanded that the party reconsider Raghunandan Rao’s candidature for the Dubbak by-election.

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In a statement, Kamalakar Reddy alleged that a woman had levelled allegations of rape against him a few months ago, and Rao had then declared that he would not contest any election till the allegations were proven false. “Raghunandan Rao has not been able to prove the allegations wrong since then,” Kamalakar Reddy said, and pointed out to the double standards in BJP state leadership’s decisions since the party had suspended a leader from Karminagar after he was faced with similar allegations.

“I am finding it difficult to work for such a leader in BJP which was led by stalwart leaders like Atal Bihari Vajpayee, LK Advani, Bangaru Lakshman and others, ” he said.

The party’s State leadership, peeved by the allegations, suspended Kamalakar Reddy from the party with immediate effect on disciplinary grounds. He is likely to join Telangana Rashtra Samithi.

Kamalakar Reddy said Raghunandann Rao had managed to get the party ticket to contest elections in 2014, 2018 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections deploying blackmailing tactics, Reddy said that he did not even get his deposit back. Stating that Rao did not even campaign during the Lok Sabha election, he said Raghunandan Rao could not even win election as a ZPTC.

He has further alleged that Raghunandan Rao, an advocate by profession, has had a history of arguing on behalf of Gangster Nayeem, and AIMIM President Salawuddin Owaisi in court.

Reddy allegedd that Raghunandan Rao extorted money from contractors of Mallanna Sagar threatening them with delaying works by filing cases in court. Saying that the BJP organising secretary Mantri Srinivas helped Raghunandan get the ticket, Reddy observed that the party will taste another defeat in the election if they failed to change their mind on Raghunandan Rao’s candidature.

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