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Telangana: Lagadapati Rajagopal not new to drama

Telangana: Lagadapati Rajagopal is seen as one leader who has unflinchingly opposed bifurcation since November 2009.

IN his hometown of Vijayawada and native district of Krishna, MP Lagadapati Rajagopal, 50, is known to have endeared himself to the masses with his attention-grabbing ways ? whether because of his rhetoric or his flair for the dramatic. So not many were surprised that he used a pepper spray in the Lok Sabha.

In December 2009, he had the entire administration of then CM K Rosaiah and the state police force on its toes after he made a dramatic escape from the Vijayawada government hospital, where he had been admitted after being arrested for starting a pro-United Andhra hunger strike. Rajagopal escaped after he requested police guards to let him use the toilet, even as over 200 security personnel were deployed outside.

Even as a manhunt was launched for him, Rajagopal walked into the NIMS Hospital in Hyderabad the next morning and admitted himself. An embarrassed Rosaiah, who was badgered by Seemandhra leaders for ordering Rajagopal?s arrest, suspended several officers, including the Vijayawada police commissioner.

In Seemandhra, Rajagopal, who was expelled from the Congress earlier this week, is seen as one leader who has unflinchingly opposed the bifurcation since November 2009.

While other Congress MPs from Coastal Andhra kept vacillating over division of the state, Rajagopal attacked his own party from day one itself, drawing the ire of several Congress MPs who wanted him to tone down his criticism of Sonia Gandhi.

?Last week, at Andhra Bhawan in New Delhi, several Congress MPs of Seemandhra and MLAs chided Rajagopal for criticising Sonia. Rajagopal simply told them that he had taken a pro-Andhra stand and would stick to his stand. He also warned them that he would do whatever possible in Parliament to stall the bifurcation,?? said a Congress MP.

The two-time MP from Vijayawada is also a rich industrialist. He heads the Rs 15,000-crore Lanco Group of Companies which runs power projects, real estate ventures, sponge iron companies and civil works. A mechanical engineer, Rajagopal took over Lanco in 1986. In 2009, he declared personal assets worth Rs 225 crore in his election affidavit.

The Lanco Hills in Hyderabad is said to be Rajagopal?s dream project. With an investment of over $ 1.5 billion, this real estate project boasts of luxurious apartments and villas, office spaces, landscaped avenues, hotels, malls and shopping complexes.

While Rajagopal, with his extensive business interests in Hyderabad, is always the target of Telangana leaders, he is also a friend of TRS president K Chandrasekhara Rao.

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First published on: 14-02-2014 at 10:08 IST
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