Telangana Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Eatala Rajender's wife Jamuna has alleged that Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLC and government whip in the Legislative Council Padi Kaushik Reddy intended to kill her husband. Addressing a press conference on Tuesday, June 27, Jamuna alleged that Kaushik Reddy said he would spend Rs 20 crore to have Eatala Rajender killed. "Even in the past, no action was taken against Kaushik Reddy in view of the support he receives from Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao," said Jamuna. Kaushik Reddy has denied the allegations and challenged Eatala to a public debate. He also levelled similar allegations against the BJP MLA.
Eatala Rajender joined BJP in 2021 after resigning from the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (now BRS) when CM KCR dropped him from the Cabinet over allegations that he grabbed the lands of some farmers in Medak district. Eatala had also quit as MLA from Huzurabad and won the bye-election on a BJP ticket. He has since emerged as a key leader of the saffron party.
Addressing the media on Tuesday, Eatala’s wife Jamuna said, “The Chief Minister will be held responsible if anyone in our family is harmed, as Kaushik Reddy is behaving in a very arbitrary manner and we don't know what he's likely to do next.” Speaking to the media, Eatala Rajender also said that Kaushik Reddy had hired people to kill him.
Calling Kaushik Reddy an inconvenience for the local residents of Huzurabad, Jamuna alleged that the BRS MLC was a womaniser who allegedly troubles shopkeepers and rice mill owners. She further said that the women of Huzurabad would unite to ensure that BRS does not come back to power. Kaushik Reddy was formerly with Congress and had contested the 2018 Huzurabad Assembly election on a Congress ticket, losing to Eatala who had then contested from BRS.
Kaushik Reddy jumped ship to the BRS in 2021 months before the Huzurabad bye-election, after he landed in trouble with Congress over an viral audio clip which suggested that he had purportedly tried to mobilise BRS workers to canvas for him in the bye-elections, claiming to tbe the claimed to be BRS’s chosen candidate.
Earlier in April, Kaushik Reddy had alleged that Eatala Rajender had paid Rs 25 crore to Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) chief Revanth Reddy to win the Huzurabad bye-election. On Tuesday, Kaushik refuted Jamuna’s allegations and claimed that he himself feared for his life from Eatala and alleged that the BJP MLA had tried to have him killed when he was with the Congress.
Kaushik Reddy was embroiled in another controversy last week, after an audio clip was leaked in which he purportedly abused a local reporter from the Mudiraj (Backward Class) community in the name of his caste. Eatala belongs to the Mudiraj community. On Monday, Kaushik offered an apology to the Mudiraj community while claiming that the audio was fake.
In recent months, there has been intense speculation in the media about a power tussle within the BJP in Telangana between Eatala Rajender, and state party chief and MP Bandi Sanjay Kumar. Earlier in May, Eatala had denied media reports that he was planning to switch loyalties to the Congress party.