Gaddar ready to take on KCR if Oppn wants

Balladeer meets Rahul, rules out joining Congress

Telugu balladeer Gummadi Vital alias Gaddar is ready to contest in the upcoming Assembly elections.

Gaddar is willing to contest against caretaker Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao in the Gajwel Assembly constituency as an independent candidate if all political parties and the people request him.

Gaddar, his wife Vimala, and son Surya Kiran, who joined the Congress recently, met Congress president Rahul Gandhi in Delhi on Friday at the invitation of AICC secretary and former MP Madhu Yashki Goud. Mr Gandhi asked him to join the party but Gaddar refused. He said he would not join any political party, but would act as a bridge between the secular political parties and the people.

He told the media after the meeting, that Mr Rahul Gandhi has started a “protect the Constitution, protect the country” movement and it was to know more about this that he met the Congress chief.

He alleged that Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had not fulfilled even one of the assurances given to the people in 2014, such as one job for every family, making a Dalit the Chief Minister and distributing land to the Dalits.

He said a new feudalism had come into existence in TS and the movement to protect the Constitution was required in the state. “My aim is to end the new feudalism in Telangana. If all parties request, I will contest as an independent,” he said, without explaining why political parties should do so.

He said that in the meeting with Mr Rahul Gandhi he did not discuss his contesting the elections.

Gaddar wants the Bellampalli constituency ticket in Adilabad district for his son Surya Kiran, but the TPCC wants to allot the seat to its ally, the Communist arty of India (CPI). Gaddar says he is ready to speak to CPI national secretary Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy about the Bellampalli seat issue.