Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLC and MLA aspirant from Telangana’s Huzurabad constituency, Padi Kaushik Reddy said if people did not vote for him on November 30 in the Assembly polls, he, along with two of his family members would die by suicide the day the results are announced. 

“It is your decision whom you choose to vote for. If you vote me to power, I will work for you. If not, you can come and see my dead body on December 4. I beg you to give me one chance. I hope you will rescue me [from suicide]. I am just asking for one chance,” he said. 

Former Congress leader Kaushik Reddy, a relative of Congress leader Uttam Kumar Reddy, joined BRS in 2021, months before the Huzurabad bye-election, after he landed in trouble with Congress over a viral audio clip which suggested that he had purportedly tried to mobilise BRS workers to canvas for him in the bye-elections, claiming to be BRS’s chosen candidate. 

After he joined BRS, he was nominated as a Member of Legislative Council under Governor’s quota, but Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan rejected it. He later became an MLC through Council elections. 

He has been embroiled in several controversies since coming to power. In June 2023, Huzurabad’s incumbent MLA from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Eatala Rajender’s wife Jamuna alleged that Kaushik Reddy was plotting to murder her husband. 

“He is trying to eliminate my husband even if it means spending Rs 20 crore,” she had said, and alleged that Kaushik had no respect for women. She also accused him of using inappropriate language which criticising Governor Tamilisai Soundarajan.

In June 2023, Adilabad BRS MLA Jogu Ramanna condemned Kaushik Reddy for his comments against the Mudiraj community. It was alleged that Kaushik had attacked a local reporter, threatened his family and abused the Mudiraj community to which the reporter belongs. The allegations are worth noting considering that Eatala Rajender also belongs to the Mudiraj community.