Congress suffered a setback in Munugode Assembly constituency in Nalgonda district after senior leader Palvai Sravanthi resigned on Saturday alleging that the party has become a commercial entity because of ‘one person’.
She is the second leader from Munugode to bid goodbye to the Congress. Earlier, Ch Krishna Reddy, who had aspired for a ticket, quit the party and joined the BJP to bag the party ticket from the same constituency.
Ms. Sravanthi is expected to join the BRS in the presence of party working president K.T. Rama Rao later on Saturday.
Another prominent leader, Patel Ramesh Reddy, who failed to get the Suryapet ticket, entered the fray as an Independent candidate.
In a four-page letter to Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, she rued that their ‘silence’ and ‘inaction’ was doing no good to the party in Telangana. Following in the footsteps of a few other senior leaders, who had left the party, she said that old-timers and those who were selflessly dedicated to the party and its well being have no place or respect.
Targeting TPCC chief A. Revanth Reddy and Munugode Congress nominee Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy, Ms. Sravanthi said that ever since Mr. Revanth Reddy was welcomed into the party, he had been scripting its end in spirit, and nullifying the values and principles that the party stood for. “It is highly deplorable how Mr. Rajagopal Reddy, who was responsible for Munugode by-poll and who was crying foul against Mr. Revanth Reddy, was overnight taken back and given a ticket,” she remarked.
Ms. Sravanthi said that she had waited for a ‘painfully-long’ period hoping that leaders sitting in Delhi would act on the “collateral damage that the party was suffering in Telangana”, thanks to one person’s attempts to turn it into a commercial entity.
In her letter, she said that she had decided to resign from all positions and capacities in the Congress with immediate effect. “The party’s original persona in my State has been completely mutilated, and in its place, we see a commercial organisation and a profit-making entity that ensures the party goes against the grain at every stage. This has rattled the spirit of many like me, and shattered the hope of any bright future, for individuals or the party,” the letter said.
She added that her father, the late Palvai Goverdhan Reddy, was a stalwart Congress leader and a selfless statesman who dedicated his life, in its fullest capacity and purest form, to the party.
“Today, the party stands at a serious juncture of survival and existence, where your selfless leadership, coupled with Mr. Rahul Gandhi’s inspiring Bharat Jodo Yatra, are thoroughly nullified by one person who is helming the party affairs in Telangana. Selling tickets with counters brazenly kept open, the repulsion that people will hit them back, is unimaginable,” she lamented.
