"Sonia Gandhi going to make me CM", Telangana Congress leader's video goes viral ahead of polls
Nov 15, 2023
Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], November 15 : Senior Congress leader and MP from Nalgonda, Komatireddy Venkat Reddy, courted controversy as a video of him allegedly saying, "Sonia Gandhi is going give the CM position to me" is being widely shared on the social media.
In the purported five-second clip, Reddy is seen addressing a poll rally in Nalgonda on Tuesday and is heard saying in Telegu "Sonia Gandhi is going to give the CM position to me if the party comes to power. There is no one senior to me here".
The video emerged on social media ahead of the November 30 elections in Telangana.
This comes even as Congress has not projected its Chief Ministerial candidate for the upcoming Telangana Assembly polls. The Congress has several probables who have staked the claim to the top post should the party return to powers. State Congress Chief Revanth Reddy, former State Chief Uttam Reddy and Congress leader Madhu Yakshi Goud are amongst the contenders from the grand old party.
Komatireddy Venkat Reddy has been a Member of the Parliament of Bhuvanagiri Parliament Constituency since 2019 and the star campaigner of the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee since 2022.
He was Deputy Floor Leader, of the Telangana Congress Legislative Party and former MLA of the Nalgonda Assembly constituency.
Venkat Reddy's younger brother Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy recently switched back to the Congress from the BJP and has also been given a ticket to contest the elections.
In another development in the poll-bound state, a scuffle broke out between Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers at Nagarjuna Sagar in Nalgonda district of Telangana on Tuesday.
In this scuffle, Nalgonda BJP District President K Sridhar Reddy was allegedly attacked by BRS workers.
In a statement, BJP State President and Union Minister G Kishan Reddy condemned the alleged attack on Reddy.
Telangana is scheduled to go to assembly elections on November 30 and the counting of votes, along with those of four other poll-bound states, has been scheduled for December 3.
The state is set to witness a triangular contest among the BJP, BRS, and Congress.
In the previous Assembly election in 2018, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), previously known as Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), won 88 of the 119 seats, hogging 47.4 per cent of the total vote share. The Congress came in a distant second with just 19 seats.
