Chevella BRS leaders bicker over poll loss

Hyderabad: The differences between BRS leaders came to the fore on Friday when the followers of party leaders from Tandur Assembly constituency, Pilot Rohit Reddy and former minister Mahender Reddy came to blows in front of senior leaders including T Harish Rao.

The party leadership had convened a preparatory meeting for the Chevella Lok Sabha segment at Telangana Bhavan on Friday. Sources said that while the party leaders wanted to take the feedback, they were shocked to see differences among the party leaders.

The issue started when former minister Patnam Mahender Reddy was speaking. The followers of Rohit Reddy (some of them were bouncers) raised objections and tried to stop Mahender Reddy from speaking. They alleged that Mahender Reddy was responsible for the party’s defeat in Tandur. According to sources, Mahender Reddy told the followers of Rohit Reddy that he can also bring lakhs of people and create disturbance in the meeting. This triggered the anger and one of the followers of Rohit Reddy rushed towards the stage abusing Mahender Reddy asking him to get out of the party. Sources said that they also tried to attack P Avinash Reddy, who is the nephew of Mahender Reddy.

Sensing the issue could turn violent, the senior leader Harish Rao announced a break for lunch and tried to pacify the leaders. The meeting ended abruptly. Soon after that Harish Rao took the party leaders, including followers of both the groups into another room and held discussions with them. He is learnt to have told them that internal rift was not good at this juncture when the Lok Sabha elections were knocking on the doors.

Both Mahender Reddy and Rohit Reddy have been at loggerheads in the Tandur constituency ever since the latter came into the party from the Congress. The party gave Tandur ticket to Rohit Reddy and made Mahender Reddy minister just before the elections and asked him to support the party candidate. But Rohit Reddy lost the polls and believes that Mahender Reddy was responsible for his defeat.

Later the party leaders told the media it has been decided to field the incumbent MP G Ranjith Reddy again from the Chevella Lok Sabha constituency.

Niranjan Reddy said that the majority of the party leaders wanted Ranjith Reddy to be given the ticket. He also said that the party had a lead of over a lakh votes collectively in the seven Assembly segments under the Chevella Lok Sabha constituency.