Despite registering a decisive victory in the Jubilee Hills assembly by-election, the Congress party is facing renewed speculation over its confidence in future by-polls in Telangana in the event of a few BRS MLAs who defected to the Congress get disqualified.
This was evident from sensational remarks by senior leader and Station Ghanpur MLA Kadiyam Srihari, who is facing disqualification for defecting from the BRS to the Congress and campaigned for his daughter Kadiyam Kavya in the Warangal Lok Sabha elections in 2024.
In an informal chat with reporters on the assembly lobbies, Kadiyam revealed that he had offered to resign from his assembly seat and seek a fresh mandate on a Congress ticket. But. chief minister A Revanth Reddy discouraged the move, citing concerns over the possible outcome.
According to Srihari, Revanth Reddy privately expressed apprehension that if by-elections were held, BRS president and former chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao might personally enter the fray, significantly boosting the BRS’s prospects.
“What appears on the surface and what happens internally are two different things,” Srihari was quoted as saying, adding that his resignation was blocked due to fears of a direct KCR contest.
This has led to the talk that Revanth Reddy doesn’t want to take any risk at this stage, especially in the constituencies where the BRS is still strong.
The BRS has repeatedly accused the Congress of being afraid of by-polls in constituencies represented by defected MLAs, arguing that the ruling party fears electoral backlash.
Srihari’s comments assume significance as the Supreme Court has already directed the assembly speaker to take action on petitions seeking disqualification of defected MLAs.
If the speaker acts, or if the MLAs resign voluntarily, multiple by-elections could be triggered across Telangana, potentially turning into what observers describe as a “mini general election”.
Political analysts note that such by-polls would be widely seen as a referendum on the Revanth Reddy government’s performance so far, with implications extending to the next assembly elections.
This, they argue, may explain the Congress leadership’s reluctance to precipitate by-elections at this stage.
