Former Vijayawada MP and the pepper spray Lagadapati Rajagopal who earlier announced political sanyasam is now reportedly getting ready to field his own nominees in the upcoming municipal polls.
Sources say that Rajagopal is in talks with his followers as well as second-rung leaders of the Congress in Vijayawada Municipal Corporation and other municipal towns in the Krishna district for this purpose.
Despite pressure from former CM Kiran and his followers, Rajagopal stuck to his retirement plan now he is believed to be considering municipal elections as a litmus test of his strength and has is hence negotiating with local leaders so that they can contest as independents.
He is also reportedly promising Congress leaders to fund their election campaign and also in getting a uniform symbol to all such independents. At the same time other Congress legislators like Malladi Vishnu, Vellampalli Srinivas, Y Ravi and former minister Devineni Nehru all seem to be happy now that he has left Congress and they need not bear his maverick ways.
