The Telangana cabinet on Sunday decided to nominate P Kaushik Reddy to the state Legislative Council, barely 10 days after he joined the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS). The cabinet meeting, presided over by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, decided to recommend to Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan to nominate Kaushik Reddy to the upper house of the state legislature. According to the Chief Minister's Office, the relevant file has been sent to Raj Bhavan for approval. Kaushik Reddy had joined the TRS on July 21, a week after he was expelled by Congress party for anti-party activities.
He was a state Congress Secretary and party in-charge for Huzurabad constituency. The Congress leadership had on July 12 issued a show cause notice to him after an audio surfaced in which he claimed that he will contest the bye-election to Huzurabad Assembly constituency on a TRS ticket. An audio of telephonic conversation between Kaushik Reddy and a TRS worker went viral. Claiming that he will be the TRS candidate in Huzurabad, he asked the TRS worker to mobilise party workers who can work for him and offered them money. The audio had surfaced a few days after Kaushik Reddy's meeting with TRS Working President and state minister KT Rama Rao at an event.
Hours after he was issued a show cause notice for indulging in anti-party activities, Kaushik Reddy announced his resignation from the primary membership of the party. The state Congress leadership, however, announced that it expelled Reddy from the party. Speaking to TNM, a source in the party revealed that this decision by TRS comes as a big step in Kaushik Reddy’s career. “He was eyeing the Huzurabad seat but due to the recent controversy, it made it impossible for the party to give him the seat. This way, Kaushik Reddy gets to be in power and he will go all-out to ensure TRS party’s victory in election-bound Huzurabad where he has a considerable base among the voters.”
Kaushik Reddy, a former cricketer, had unsuccessfully contested as a Congress candidate from Huzurabad in the 2018 Assembly elections. The Assembly seat fell vacant following the resignation of former minister Eatala Rajender, who recently quit the TRS to join the BJP. The bye-election is likely to be conducted soon.
(With IANS inputs)