An audio purportedly of Congress leader Padi Kaushik Reddy claiming that the Huzurabad byelection ticket on behalf of the ruling TRS has been confirmed to him went viral even as the Congress disciplinary action committee issued a show-cause notice to him.
In the audio, Mr. Reddy, who contested in the 2018 Assembly elections as a Congress candidate, was heard asking a TRS activist to mobilise youth for money. He wa heard telling the TRS activist that the ticket for the bypoll was confirmed to him and asked him to give a list of youth in his village. “Pay them ₹2,000, 3,000 or 5,000 and bring them into the party. I will take care of you,” he was heard saying.
It is, however, not yet confirmed whether the audio is real or morphed. Mr Reddy was not reachable despite efforts to understand the genuineness of the audio.
The Huzurabad bypoll was necessitated after former Health Minister Eatala Rajender resigned as the MLA after he was dismissed from the Ministry by Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao alleging that he had indulged in land grabbing. Mr. Eatala, however, dismissed it as a political witch-hunt and joined the BJP later. He is likely to be the BJP candidate.
Mr. Reddy, a cousin of former TPCC president and Nalgonda MP N. Uttam Kumar Reddy, raised suspicion among the party leaders after he met the TRS working president and Municipal Minister K.T. Rama Rao at a function a few days after Mr. Rajender resigned. However, he clarified that it was an accidental meeting when he went to attend a function of his neighbour that Mr. KTR also attended. “I will again contest from Huzurabad as a Congress candidate in the byelection,” he had said.
The meeting also led to speculation that he was being invited by the TRS though the party never confirmed it. However, Mr. Reddy has been severely criticising Mr. Eatala demanded his arrest for amassing illegal assets. Interestingly, he was silent on the TRS leadership forcing some Congress leaders of Huzurabad to question his silence on the tainted leaders of the TRS party while singling out Mr. Eatala.