Dubbak bypoll: Chinks in opposition armour

Siddipet: Major chinks in the opposition armour surfaced on Wednesday when the two national parties faced embarrassing moments in the run up to the Dubbak Assembly constituency by-election. While BJP faced the ignominy of its candidate, M Raghunandan Rao, being hauled over the coals by party leader Thota Kamalakar Reddy for alleged sexual misconduct, the […]

Siddipet: Major chinks in the opposition armour surfaced on Wednesday when the two national parties faced embarrassing moments in the run up to the Dubbak Assembly constituency by-election. While BJP faced the ignominy of its candidate, M Raghunandan Rao, being hauled over the coals by party leader Thota Kamalakar Reddy for alleged sexual misconduct, the Congress lost its Medak district general secretary Cheruku Kondal Reddy to the TRS.

These unsavoury developments for the opposition came even as TRS candidate Solipeta Sujatha launched her election campaign at Kudavelly that saw an overwhelming response from the public.

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Kamalakar Reddy, in a statement, demanded a rethink on the part of the party leadership over the candidature of Raghunandan Rao since allegations of rape had been levelled against him by a woman a few months ago. Kamalakar Reddy went on to point out that Raghunandan Rao had then declared that he would not contest any election till the allegations were proved wrong.

“Raghunandan Rao has not been able to prove the allegations wrong since then,” Kamalakar Reddy said, and lashed out at the party’s State leadership for its double standards since it had suspended a leader from Karminagar after he was faced with similar allegations.

The BJP, peeved by the allegations, suspended Kamalakar Reddy from the party with immediate effect on disciplinary grounds, and he is likely to join TRS.

On the Congress front, Kondal Reddy joined the TRS in the presence of Finance Minister T Harish Rao at Chekodu in the constituency along with his supporters. Several other leaders from both the Congress and BJP also joined the TRS in the presence of the Minister.

Meanwhile, Sujatha, seeking the blessings of her constituency people, urged them to ensure a one lakh-plus majority for the TRS in the constituency.

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