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Two ex-ministers quit Congress in Andhra Pradesh to protest tie-up with TDP
As the TDP and Congress have joined hands to fight the assembly election in Telangana jointly against the ruling Telangana Rastra Samithi (TRS), some Congress leaders are worried that the same may happen in Andhra Pradesh.
Two former ministers in Andhra Pradesh—Vatti Vasanta Kumar and C. Ramachandraiah - Saturday resigned from the Congress to protest its aligning with the Telugu Desam Party (TDP).
While Vasanta Kumar is a third generation Congress man and had held rural development and IT portfolios in the previous Congress governments (2004-14), Ramachandraiah, a chartered accountant, snapped links with the TDP to join megastar Chiranjeevi’s Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) in 2008. He became the minister for Endowments in the Congress government after the merger of the PRP with the Congress.
As the TDP and Congress have joined hands to fight the assembly election in Telangana jointly against the ruling Telangana Rastra Samithi (TRS), some Congress leaders are worried that the same may happen in Andhra Pradesh.
Addressing separate press conferences, the two leaders called any proposed tie-up in the state “unethical” and unlikely to accepted by the party rank and file.
The TDP and the Congress fought pitched battles for power since the former came into existence under the leadership of matinee idol NT Rama Rao in 1982 .
Vasanta Kumar also said that the prospects of Congress have improved in Andhra Pradesh but the latest developments were “suicidal”.
Former Union minister J.D. Seelam of the Congress justified his party getting close to the TDP, highlighting the need to build a broad-based platform with the Congress and the other like-minded parties at the national level in defence of Dalits, secular values and democratic institutions which came under serious threat during the current regime headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Centre. “The party workers gave a mandate to our leader Rahul ji in the party’s recent plenary in Delhi to go ahead taking like-minded parties on board in the fight against the BJP and his meeting with TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu is just an extension. Therefore, every worker in the party needs to abide by the mandate in the larger interests of the country”, Seelam told Hindustan Times.
Meanwhile, Chandrababu Naidu at a teleconference Friday attempted to pacify the TDP sections opposing the understanding with the Congress, describing it as a “democratic compulsion” to protect the party and safeguard the interests of the state from the Modi regime.
