S Jaipal Reddy, an icon of the Socialist stream of politics for over two decades, yesterday said that he was joining the Congress party because it was the single largest political force to defeat the BJP and there was no scope for a viable third force emerging in the near future in the country.
Reddy said he had met Sonia Gandhi and would contest the elections from wherever the party wanted him to contest. His Mehboobnagar constituency has already been allocated to a Congress functionary.
There were indications in the party that Reddy might be feilded from a constituency against the CPI(M) which has refused to join hands with the Congress in Andhra Pradesh. A senior Congress functionary however said that vacating any constituency for Reddy would not be difficult. ions (DOT) has said there are no irregularities in the procurement of switching equipment.">
