Ex-MP Boora Narsaiah Goud quits TRS, may find a new home in Telangana BJP

The saffron party is understood to have come to the conclusion that there would be no competition for the Bhongir Lok Sabha seat since Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy, who was elected to the lower house from the constituency in 2014, has now has decided to contest from Munugode in the Assembly elections next year as well, apart from fighting the present by-election.

Letter of resignation

Narsaiah Goud, in a letter to TRS supremo and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, said that he had taken the decision to quit the party as he could no longer live like a slave. “There is a difference between slavery and admiration,” he said, adding that political bonded labour is something the people of Telangana abhor.

He said though he was “not interested in contesting from Munugode”, what hurt him most was the way he was ignored while the party finalised the candidate.

He said he had not been invited to the Atma Gourava Sabhas, which the party had been conducting, just because he had said the Munugode ticket should go to a Backward Classes (BC) candidate instead of a Reddy.

“It pains me to see that the BCs remain discriminated against economically and in the share of political power. I have been working for the party’s interests till now as I was thankful to you for what you have done to me,” he said.

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History of association

In his letter, Narsaiah Goud has traced the long history of his association with KCR and the TRS since 2009, recalling how he left his practise as a doctor and how he had made efforts to rise to the party chief’s expectations.

He also gave an account of his work since his election to the Lok Sabha in 2014 from Bhongir and how he had laboured to help the party nominees in his Lok Sabha constituency win their respective Assembly seats in the 2018 Assembly elections.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, he lost the seat due to internal sabotage and the presence of symbols similar to TRS’ on EVMs, and that too narrowly.

Interestingly, Narsaiah Goud took part in the procession organised to mark Kusukuntla Prabhakar Reddy filing his nomination papers a few days ago, but overnight decided to part ways with KCR.

Ever since Narsaiah Goud lost the Lok Sabha election from Bhongir against Congress nominee Komatireddy Venkata Reddy in the 2019 election, he has been of the view that he was being sidelined.

Related: Why does the Left matter in Munugode?

Internal sabotage

When the Munugode by-election arrived, he is understood to have aspired for the TRS ticket, but the party supremo threw a douche of cold water at him and fielded Kusukuntla Prabhakar Reddy, which was like rubbing salt into his wounds.

After his defeat in the election in 2019 Lok Sabha polls, which his supporters say was due to an act of sabotage by his own party’s Reddy leaders, he has been feeling like a fish out of the water.

He, in fact, mentioned as a passing reference in his resignation letter that KCR was aware of how “internal sabotage” had made him lose the seat, besides other factors.

Over time, his relations with Energy Minister G Jagadeewar Reddy, who represented the erstwhile Nalgonda district, also deteriorated and hit a nadir after the Munugode seat fell vacant.

He let out his pent-up emotions against Jagadeeswar Reddy, saying that the minister had humiliated him by not involving him in the preparations for the by-election, just because he had stood up for the backward classes.

BC strength in Munugode

The total electorate in Munugode constituency is estimated at 2.2 lakh. About 1.5 lakh of these are BC voters — and of this, Goudas constitute 38,000 voters.

They are followed by Golla Kurumas (35,000) and Mudiraj (34,500), and others.

It is believed that Narsaiah Goud would be able to split TRS Goudas vote bank in favour of Rajagopal Reddy, who is contesting on the BJP ticket, as Munugode forms part of Bhongir Lok Sabha constituency which he represented earlier.