Former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader AP Jithender Reddy and his son Mithun Reddy joined the Congress party on Friday, March 15. Jithender Reddy who was hoping to contest from Mahabubnagar parliamentary constituency was denied a ticket by the BJP. The party instead nominated BJP national vice-president DK Aruna.
The former MP was welcomed into the Congress in the presence of Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and All India Congress Committee in-charge Deepa Das Munshi.
In his resignation letter to the BJP, Jithender Reddy said that he was quitting the party for giving preference to “outsiders” who joined the party recently. The veiled dig was evidently aimed at Eatala Rajender, the current BJP state president.
Criticising the decision to replace former BJP Telangana president Bandi Sanjay, he said, “ In Telangana state, Shri Bandi Sanjay garu continued the development work and ensured that the BJP reaches nooks and corners of our state. The party was steadily rising and the message of development was being conveyed to everyone. However, after the change in state leadership, the party has suffered severely as witnessed by the recently-concluded assembly elections, where the party should have won at least 25 seats but we managed to secure only 8 seats in the 119-member assembly of Telangana assembly.”
“Even in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, our party has given preference to outsiders who recently joined our party and do not share the same ethos as us. I have conveyed my reservations and apprehensions several times at the state and national level,” he said.
Speculations were rife that Jithender Reddy would shift his loyalties to the Congress after CM Revanth Reddy had met him at his residence on March 14.
After joining the Congress, Jithender Reddy was immediately appointed as the special representative and advisor of the Telangana government. Under this new role, Jithender enjoys the rank of a state Minister.