The Telangana Congress Committee expelled him after he met Union Home Minister Amit Shah recently, in an apparent prelude to joining the BJP.
Published Nov 22, 2022 | 3:31 PM ⚊ Updated Nov 22, 2022 | 3:31 PM
Marri Shashidhar Reddy. (Supplied)
Senior Telangana leader Marri Shashidhar Reddy, who was expelled from the Congress for a period of six years, resigned from the party on Tuesday, 22 November.
“It is very painful for me to leave the party. I am leaving in the interest of Telangana and its people. I grew with the party. But the Congress could not rise to become an effective Opposition to the TRS,” he said.
The Telangana Congress Committee (TPCC) expelled him after he met BJP senior leader and Union Home Minister Amit Shah recently, in an apparent prelude to joining the BJP.
The exit of the four-time MLA from the Congress is a painful development for the party as well, because Shashidhar comes from an illustrious family.
His father Marri Chenna Reddy left a mark on the annals of Telangana by serving the combined state of Andhra Pradesh as its chief minister, earning accolades from various quarters.
Shahishdar, the former vice-chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), lately found himself in the camp that is opposed to incumbent PCC president A Revanth Reddy.
As a member of the “seniors” group in the party, he remained a gadfly under Revanth.
He was one of the critics of Revanth Reddy. He deplored the national leadership for not taking corrective action even though the party was losing one by-election after the other.
Shashidhar said he had written a long letter to party matriarch Sonia Gandhi explaining the circumstances which forced him to quit the party.
He was distressed to watch the party fall from grace to the level of not being able to measure up to being the Opposition party, he said.
He also recalled that it was because of Sonia Gandhi’s decision that the Telangana state became a reality, something which even Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao had admitted.
While leaving the Congress, he alleged that the party had a covert understanding with the TRS and that he had never imagined that the party would descend to such depths.
He said he felt sorry that those who were appointed as in charge of Telangana turned out to be agents of PCC chiefs. Of late, those who are ready to spend money could have their way within the party, he said.
