Ace parliamentarian Jaipal Reddy may never have thought that he would contest Lok Sabha poll as a candidate of Congress party which he was never tired of attacking. Be it corruption, Bofors, Fairfax, HDW submarine deal or dynasty, Reddy was in the forefront of attack and the Congress has been on the receiving end.

But now that Reddy is fighting the Miryalguda Lok Sabha seat in Andhra on Congress ticket, his predicament is understandable. He is having to chew his words which he uttered so venomously so many times in the run up to all the elections in the recent past.

Old timers will recall Reddy even contested against late Indira Gandhi from Medak Lok Sabha constituency way back in 1980. He lost the election but never lost his fire power. In fact, Reddy mastered the art of political attack on his adversaries and he amply demonstrated the same through the Rajiv era to Vajpayee.

Reddy is having to fight another Reddy-Rangasai of the TDP this time round. AReddy-dominated seat, Miryalguda voters may have had a difficult choice. The Congress-bashing made Jaipal Reddy a national figure in the past. Now he is to find new moorings. TDP bashing could not have been appropriate. After all, he won the Mehboodnagar Lok Sabba seat last year, courtesy TDP supremo Chandrababu Naidu. Obviously, BJP was his target of attack and through BJP the TDP.

It would, perhaps, be uncharitable to attack Reddy for his U-turn. Politics makes strange bedfellows.