Interview | Danam Nagender talks Ghar Waapsi, BRS exit, Congress revival vision in Secunderabad

Hyderabad: “It’s Ghar Waapsi for me,” said Danam Nagender, the Congress candidate for the Secunderabad Lok Sabha seat, who from Indian National Congress switched to Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and found his way back to Congress in 2024.

Danam Nagender won the Khairtabad Assembly constituency in 2018 and 2023 on a BRS ticket. He was an MLA from Asifnagar during his earlier term in Congress in 1994, 1999 and 2004 in United Andhra Pradesh.

In an interview with NewsMeter, senior leader Danam Nagender speaks about his 30 years in politics and the need to restore the erstwhile glory of Congress in Secunderabad where it was once a power to reckon with.

Here are excerpts from the interview:

NM: Your candidature as a Secunderabad Member of Parliament has seen ups and downs since the name was announced. It was rumoured that you were reluctant to take on the fight for the Secunderabad MP seat. What is your take now?

Danam Nagender: I am fortunate that the senior members of the Indian National Congress have chosen me for the Secunderabad Member of Parliament seat. I would like to thank all of them as this is an important opportunity for me.

The Congress party is finalising the seat based on surveys and every survey had my name on it. Danam Nagender was the name that people in Secunderabad opted for in the survey. After I won the Telangana Assembly elections, I took time to finalise the next step as I wanted to take a legal opinion before I plunged in. I have done that with a team of lawyers known to me for years. The Congress party also have a team of lawyers who guided me.

Once I was satisfied, I told chief minister Revanth Reddy that I would win this seat as a gift for him. People in Secunderabad are saying that the Congress party does not exist in the urban area and I have taken this as a challenge to prove them wrong.

Interestingly, I wanted to contest for the Member of Parliament elections in 2004 and here I am in 2024 contesting for it. I think it was in my fate that the contest should come my way.

NM: Your switch from BRS to Congress has been the talk of the town. It has had an impact on the cadres of BRS and the Congress party in the city. How are you dealing with it?

Danam Nagender: To be very honest, in the last seven years I was not happy with BRS. I was suffocating there and often asked myself what am I doing here, what is my political future in this party and why I joined BRS? I asked myself often the mistakes I have made to get here. I wanted to join the Congress party during the Assembly elections. But I wanted to win my seat from Khairtabad and then leave BRS.

The cadre is with me and they are all working hard for me. I have actually had a ‘Ghar Waapsi’ in Congress and my friends, colleagues and cadre have welcomed me with great warmth.

NM: If you were exploring the option to join Congress during the Assembly elections, why did you wait? What was the reason?

Danam Nagender: I left Congress in 2004 due to issues within the party. I wanted to come back by winning the Assembly seat as an MLA. I wanted my election victory to be my trophy to the party. When I left in 2004, I went with aplomb and did not want to come back empty-handed. For that reason, I waited.

So, when I got a call from chief minister Revanth Reddy to come back to Congress, I found myself fortunate. However, I asked him not to restrain me but to let me free inside the city and I assured him that I would try my best to bring back the past glory of Congress. Hence, that is my main focus.

Secunderabad seat is giving me the opportunity to bring back all those who worked with me from the time of former chief minister Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy.

NM: According to various reports, it is said that the sitting Member of Parliament from BJP G Kishan Reddy is very strong and that the contest is rather tough for you.

Danam Nagender: The sitting BJP MP Kishan Reddy has not been available to people. This is a complaint from everyone. He's hardly meeting anyone. The job of an elected leader is to be available to people whenever they are needed. This has not happened in the case of Kishan Reddy.

NM: Voters are now aware of what each leader says and does. The digital records are also preserved by them. How are you going convince the voters about rumours and information being spread about you?

Danam Nagender: Voters are no doubt very aware now compared to what they were years ago. But even political parties have changed. BRS which is a new party has abused the election process. They have been working hard and spreading a lot of misinformation about me and the Congress party. They have been making false accusations against chief minister Revanth Reddy and the senior leaders of the Congress party.

BRS is spreading false information about them saying they are all fighting among themselves. Why will they do that? This is false propaganda. The kind of misinformation that BRS is spreading is very unfortunate. These practices are not good.

The senior leaders of the Congress party, youth and cadre have suffered for the last 10 years. I am still unable to understand the logic behind these talks by BRS leaders. The only answer for them: my team and I have to work hard and win the Secunderabad seat. After that, they will have no place for these false narratives.