Hyderabad: One of the aspirants for cabinet berth, MLA Komtireddy Rajagopal Reddy, called on AICC in-charge Meekashi Natarajan to defend his recent statements against senior party leader K Jana Reddy. However it is learnt that the party’s national leader warned the Munugode MLA over making controversial comments in public and asked the latter to maintain silence on cabinet expansion.

Rajagopal Reddy was in the news following his statements made against Jana Reddy for backing legislators from Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy districts. The latter wrote a letter to the party high command urging it to give priority to MLAs from these two districts during Cabinet expansion. Purportedly, Jana Reddy backed inducting Ibrahimpatnam MLA Malreddy Ranga Reddy into cabinet. This did not augur well with Rajagopal Reddy, one of the top aspirants aiming for cabinet berth. Within days after Jana Reddy’s letter, Rajagopal Reddy accused the former Home Minister of blocking his entry into the Telangana cabinet, causing major embarrassment to the party.

On Wednesday, the MLA turned up at the Gandhi Bhavan and tried to clarify with Meenakshi Natarajan about the issue. However, the AICC in-charge reiterated her stance that the party leaders avoid making public statements against fellow partymen. She asked him to rather focus on strengthening the party at his constituency level.

Later, speaking media persons, Rajagopal Reddy, while emphasising that he had high regards for seniors like Jana Reddy, reiterated that he should have avoided writing to the party high command. He alleged that Jana Reddy tried to influence the decision of the party high command which is entrusted with identifying the right candidates for the cabinet. Downplaying his visit, the MLA described this as a courtesy call to the AICC in-charge, as he was meeting her for the first time after taking charge. During his meeting with Meenakshi Natarajan, various issues including strengthening the party at the grass root level before the local body polls were discussed, he added.