Reliable sources say that the Congress party leadership is planning to take strategic steps to field Khairatabad MLA Danam Nagender as the Congress candidate in the Jubilee Hills by-election. These sources say that there is a two-pronged strategy to get Danam Nagender out of the issue of defecting MLAs and to send a positive signal to the Congress party in the state by making a Congress candidate win from Jubilee Hills before the local body elections.
Jubilee Hills constituency is a sitting seat for the main opposition. These sources also say that Chief Minister Revanth Reddy and TPCC President Mahesh Kumar Goud have already brought this issue to the attention of party leaders. It is known that 10 MLAs of the BRS party have defected to the ruling Congress.
The BRS has approached the Supreme Court to disqualify the MLAs who have defected from their party, and the Supreme Court bench has directed Legislative Assembly Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar to take action on this issue within three months. To this end, the Speaker has also issued notices to the MLAs facing allegations of defection.
In this context, 9 MLAs including Danam Nagender, who are facing allegations of defection, recently met Chief Minister Revanth Reddy. On that occasion, they revealed that they had not taken the Congress veil, that they were still in the BRS party, and that they met the Chief Minister only for the development work of their constituency.
This argument has no chance of being valid in the case of Danam Nagender. Without resigning from his MLA post and the BRS party, he contested as the Congress MP candidate from Secunderabad and was defeated. With this, Danam Nagender did not have the opportunity to argue like the other MLAs facing allegations of defection.
However, it is also said that CM Revanth Reddy has assured that he will protect the MLAs who have trusted him and changed their party in any way. As part of this, it is learnt that the Congress is planning to get Danam Nagender to resign from the Khairatabad MLA post and field him as a Congress candidate for the Jubilee Hills by-election.
Moreover, as presently there is no representation to Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy districts in the state cabinet, anyone who wins from Jubilee Hills is likely to get a cabinet berth. That’s why Danam Nagender is making all-out efforts, bringins pressure on CM Revanth Reddy to get this seat, so as to ensure cabinet berth.