The Congress intensified its efforts to rope in former Minister Tummala Nageswara Rao, who was sulking over being denied the ruling BRS ticket from the Palair Assembly constituency.
TPCC campaign committee co-convenor and former Khammam MP Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy called on Mr. Nageshwara Rao at his residence here on Saturday.
Mr. Reddy had invited the former minister to join the Congress to trounce the ruling BRS in the upcoming Assembly elections, party sources said.
The meeting came as surprise among political circles as both the leaders were considered poles apart in the ruling BRS in the last five years.
TPCC president and Malkajgiri MP a Revanth Reddy on Thursday paid a visit to Mr Rao’s house in Hyderabad in an effort to persuade him to join the Congress ahead of the Assembly elections due this year end.
Mr. Nageshwara Rao, however, told the Congress leaders that he would decide his next course of action after consulting his supporters and other well-wishers.
He had already made it clear that he would contest the next Assembly elections, without elaborating further.
