Former MP Konda Vishweshwar Reddy likely to join BJP

Hyderabad: Former MP Konda Vishweshwar Reddy, who quit the Congress last year, is likely to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Announcing the decision to join BJP, he said, "It was thought that after achieving separate Statehood for Telangana, wonders can be done with funds for one of the richest states, but what happened was exactly the opposite", reported.

Earlier, BJP national General Secretary in-charge of party affairs in Telangana, Tarun Chug along with state BJP president, Bandi Sanjay met Vishweshwar Reddy and invited him to join the party.

Reddy is likely to formally join the BJP in the presence of party's national President JP Nadda in Hyderabad on July 1, a day ahead of the party's national executive meet.

An engineer and entrepreneur, Vishweshwar Reddy is husband of Sangita Reddy, Managing Director of the Apollo Hospitals.

Reddy, who was with the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) before switching over to the Congress, had earlier stated that both the Congress and the BJP can't be an alternative to the TRS.

He had also hinted at floating a new regional party with an aim to defeat the TRS in the 2023 Assembly elections, and was planning to bring together leaders of various smaller parties and even those TRS leaders who are unhappy with Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao to form an alternative.

In May last year, he had met Eatala Rajender after the latter was dropped from the Telangana cabinet by Chief Minister Chandrashekar Rao following allegations that he had encroached lands of some farmers.

Rajender had later joined the BJP and was re-elected from Huzurabad Assembly seat on BJP ticket in the by-elections held in November last year.

Vishweshwar Reddy had fought and won the Lok Sabha elections from Chevella on TRS ticket in 2014. During his term, he was one of the richest serving MPs.

He is the only parliamentarian from India to be granted a US patent while serving as a Member of Parliament.

As an engineer by profession, Reddy had worked as an adjunct faculty in the New Jersey Institute of Technology, NJ, and Essex County College, Newark, U.S. A successful software entrepreneur, he founded Citadel Research & Solutions, a company involved in engineering research and development.

He quit the TRS before the 2019 elections and joined Congress. He contested again from Chevella but lost to the TRS candidate.