Former Minister and senior leader Marri Shashidhar Reddy resigned from the Congress party on Tuesday. Reddy sent his resignation letter to Congress leader Sonia Gandhi and party president Mallikarjun Kharge. He is likely to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Speaking to the media, Shashidhar Reddy, the son of late Chief Minister Marri Chenna Reddy, said that he was quitting the party with a heavy heart. He alleged that the Congress party has 'match-fixing' with the state's ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi.
The former minister said, "The Congress party should have taken up issues on behalf of people, but it is acting contrary to this." He claimed that Congress has been losing elections since Uttam Kumar Reddy became president of the party's state unit. Shashidhar said that the Congress was declining in Telangana and that people no longer trusted a leader elected on a party ticket.
He further said that individuals with money power are in charge of the party.
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Reddy was expelled from the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) on November 18 for his anti-party activities. The action came after Shashidhar Reddy met the Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi, during which he was accompanied by party vice president DK Aruna and BJP state president Bandi Sanjay.
In July, MLA Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy quit the party and joined the BJP. He contested the recent by-election from Munugode constituency as a BJP candidate but lost to the TRS candidate, Prabhakar Reddy. The Congress candidate finished at paltry third.
Rajagopal Reddy's brother and the Congress party's star campaigner, Komatireddy Venkat Reddy, had abstained from campaigning in the bypoll. Venkat Reddy, an MP, was also served a show-cause notice by the party after an audio went viral in which he is heard directing the Congress leaders in Munugode to work for his brother.
(With inputs from ABP Desam — It is a Telugu platform of ABP News. For more news, commentary and latest happenings from two Telugu states, follow https://telugu.abplive.com//amp)