Turncoat MLA Arekapudi Gandhi caught campaigning for Congress despite denying defection

Serilingampally MLA Arekapudi Gandhi, who denied defecting to Congress, was spotted campaigning for party candidate Naveen Yadav ahead of Jubilee Hills bypoll. Gandhi’s actions coincide with a pending disqualification hearing

Hyderabad: In utter disregard for the Constitution and the Legislature, Serilingampally MLA Arekapudi Gandhi, who recently denied having defected to the Congress, was found openly campaigning for Congress candidate Naveen Yadav ahead of Jubilee Hills byelection on Thursday.

Accompanied by Telangana State Dairy Development Co-operative Federation Limited chairman and Congress leader Gutha Amith Reddy, he campaigned for the Congress at a meeting with residents at Sri Shakti Apartments in Kalyan Nagar. While Amith Reddy shared a post on X stating that they were participating in the meeting on the occasion of the Jubilee Hills by-election, the residents of Kalyan Nagar confirmed that Gandhi actively participated in the meeting and sought support for the Congress candidate.

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Along with seven other MLAs accused of defecting to the Congress, Gandhi had submitted a written explanation to Assembly Speaker Gaddam Prasad, denying that he defected from the BRS to the ruling Congress party. He had maintained that his meeting with Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy was solely for constituency development and that morphed images were being circulated by his political opponents to malign him.

Ironically, Gandhi was campaigning for the Congress candidate, even as he is scheduled to appear before the Speaker for the hearing in the disqualification petition filed against him on November 12 and 13. His latest photographs, sharing the dais with Congress leaders and participating in campaign meetings, have come as a shot in the arm for the BRS ahead of the hearing.