BJP likely to placate Peddi Reddy with Husnabad seat

HYDERABAD: With former Health Minister Eatala Rajender joining its ranks, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) may ask its rebel leader E Peddi Reddy, who aspires to wrest the Huzurabad constituency on a BJP ticket, to make do with the Husnabad Assembly ticket. Peddy Reddy has been up in arms against the BJP over Rajender’s entry and his potential candidature in the Huzurabad byelection. 

The former TDP leader had joined the saffron brigade in 2019 in the hopes of an opportunity to contest from the Huzurabad constituency in the next general elections. To Peddi Raddy’s misfortune, he was not given a TDP ticket in the 2014 elections, and had to forgo his TDP candidature in the 2018 elections due to an alliance with the Congress.

It appears that bad luck has followed him to the BJP as well. As Rajender stakes claim to the Huzurabad seat, Peddi Reddy wants the BJP leadership to offer him a respectable position in the party. “After joining the BJP in 2019, I was under the impression that I would be given the party’s ticket in the next elections. I understand that the party needs to be fortified to get into power, but what about leaders like me? I will be happy if the party gives me due recognition,” Peddi Reddy said.