Komatireddy responds to show cause notice; claims audio is fake

HYDERABAD: Beleaguered Congress leader Komatireddy Venkat Reddy has clarified to his party that the accusation that he had asked partymen to vote for his brother and BJP candidate for Munugode by-election Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy was false.

The Bhongir MP reportedly tendered his explanation to the Congress disciplinary action committee (DAC) in response to a show cause notice served on him. Claiming that he was a committed soldier of the Congress party for over three decades and right from his student days, he said that the leaked audio clip was fake and he was not part of the conversation, as insinuated on social media.

In his explanation, which is said to have been forwarded to the DAC a few days back, Venkat Reddy reportedly expressed his anguish that he was being systematically sidelined in the party. He felt that he was being humiliated, belittled and his image being tarnished as part of a willful campaign against him. The Nalgonda strongman was also believed to have raked up several other issues pertaining to the Telangana Congress in his letter to the DAC.

On October 22, 2022, the Congress party's DAC served a show cause notice on Komatireddy Venkat Reddy, based on a complaint from the party's Telangana incharge Manickam Tagore. He was asked to explain why action should not be taken against him in connection with a viral leaked audio clip of a purported conversation between the MP and Jabbar Bhai, a Congress leader in Munugode.

It was insinuated that Venkat Reddy had asked Jabbar to vote for his brother Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy instead of Congress party's Munugode candidate Palvai Shravanti. Venkat Reddy was away in Australia then on a vacation with his family. Only on Friday, reports claimed that the DAC had served a fresh notice on the MP. But as per later reports, Venkat Reddy was learnt to have already responded to the show cause notice right from Australia and made his position clear.

There were also reports that the leaked audio clip was actually three years old and it was not in the context of the by-election for Munugode Assembly constituency, which went for polling on November 3.