The Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) is witnessing a power struggle between a sitting MLA and MLC, both of them contenders for the party ticket from Jangaon constituency in the upcoming Assembly elections. While Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has already announced most of the BRS candidates to contest the elections to be held by the end of 2023, Jangaon is among the four constituencies where the names are yet to be declared. Amid the uncertainty, a power tussle is ongoing between various ticket aspirants within BRS.
On Saturday, September 2, incumbent MLA of Jangaon Muthireddy Yadagiri Reddy and his supporters staged a protest against BRS MLC Palla Rajeshwar Reddy, who is said to be a top contender for the Jangaon ticket. Muthireddy and some of his followers removed their shirts as part of the protest, and also waved black flags.
Alleging that Palla Rajeshwar was responsible for injustice against Dalits in the constituency, Yadagiri Reddy and his followers raised slogans asking the MLC to “go back” from Jangaon, and labelling him a “traitor” of Dalits. The protest was held in front of an Ambedkar statue in Jangaon.
Muthireddy himself was embroiled in a major controversy in June this year, when his daughter Tulja Bhavani Reddy accused him of fraudulently registering a 1,270 square yard parcel of public land in Cherial town in her name and returned the land to the municipality. Bhavani had emphasised her father's status as a billionaire and two-term MLA and said it was unjust of him to claim ownership of public land given his accumulated wealth of about Rs 1,000 crore.
During the protest in Jangaon on Saturday, Muthireddy alleged that Palla Rajeshwar had filed false cases against a few Dalit BRS members, and demanded that he drop the cases. He alleged that the MLC had targeted marginalised groups in the constituency and thereby tarnished the party's reputation in Jangaon. He appealed to M KCR to take notice of alleged corrupt activities of the MLC. “Rajeshwar Reddy is involved in land grabbing and large-scale corruption. I have all the evidence to prove my accusations. I have complete faith that CM KCR will order a probe into this,” Muthireddy said.
Meanwhile, MLC Palla Rajeshwar Reddy reportedly hosted lunch for women leaders of the constituency for Rakshabandhan, which is being seen as part of his attempts to mobilise support among party leaders in Jangaon.