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Telangana Congress MLA quits party, assembly; hints at joining BJP
Reddy, who represents Munugode assembly constituency in Nalgonda district, told reporters that he would soon meet state assembly speaker Pocharam Srinivas Reddy and submit his resignation letter.
Congress lawmaker in Telangana Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy on Tuesday announced his resignation from the primary membership of the party and his assembly membership.
Reddy, who represents Munugode assembly constituency in Nalgonda district, told reporters that he would soon meet state assembly speaker Pocharam Srinivas Reddy and submit his resignation letter.
With Reddy’s resignation from the assembly membership, the strength of the Congress in 119-member assembly will come down to five. The party won 19 seats in the 2018 assembly election. Of them, 12 MLAs defected to the TRS and the party lost one more seat in the by-election to Huzurnagar seat held due to the election of a sitting MLA to Lok Sabha, leaving the party with just six seats.
Reddy indicated that he would join the Bharatiya Janata Party soon. “My fight is against the Telangana Rashtra Samithi government. The only way to put an end to this anarchic rule of the TRS, there is a need to strengthen the BJP. I am confident that the Narendra Modi government would return to power for a third consecutive term at the Centre,” he said.
Stating that he had all the respect towards Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi, Reddy said unfortunately, the party had lost acceptability among the people due to certain wrong decisions. “The party has become weak at the national level, too,” he observed.
The MLA refuted the criticism that he was changing the party only for the sake of money and contracts. “If that is the case, I would have joined the TRS which had made several offers since 2014. I have been fighting against the family rule of the TRS,” he said.
The Congress state unit reacted cautiously to the MLA’s resignation. “We know about his plans, but he has been playing hide and seek with the party. The high command had given him a deadline to decide on his plans by Tuesday and he would have been automatically expelled from the party. That is why he made this announcement hastily,” state an official release from the office of PCC president A Revanth Reddy.
Rajagopal Reddy also said he had been toying with the idea of resigning from the assembly membership for a long time, because the TRS government had been neglecting the development of his constituency for the past eight years.
“I have been making several representations to the state government on granting of pattas for the podu lands being cultivated by tribals in Munugode; ration cards to the eligible poor people, Dalit Bandhu scheme to the beneficiaries etc. The chief minister has not been giving appointments to the opposition party MLAs at all,” he alleged.
Rajagopal Reddy said only when there was a by-election in any constituency, the government showed interest in pumping money on developmental works. “So, at least for the sake of this development, I am forced to resign from my assembly seat without waiting further. Now that there will be a by-election to Munugode, I hope chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao will grant funds for the constituency,” he said.
Meanwhile, prominent lawyer Rachana Reddy and Telangana rice millers association president V Mohan Reddy joined the BJP in the presence of union jal sakthi minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and BJP state president Bandi Sanjay Kumar at Yadadri on Tuesday.
