Rajaiah Announces Resignation To BRS, Peddi Reddy Likely To Follow Suit

Warangal: In a setback to the BRS ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, senior leader and former deputy chief minister Thatikonda Rajaiah declared his resignation from the party on Saturday in Jangaon of the erstwhile Warangal district.

The former Station Ghanpur MLA is likely to send his resignation letter to party chief and former chief minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao to join the Congress on February 10 in the presence of Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy.

He attributed his decision to the party leadership's lack of responsiveness after he aspired MP ticket from the Warangal segment. Two days ago, Rajaiah held discussions with the incharge minister of erstwhile Warangal district Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy and also met state Congress incharge Deep Das Munsi to express his wish to join the party after he was denied BRS ticket from Station Ghanpur, which went to Kadiyam Sri Hari, who won the Assembly polls from the constituency, subsequently.

To assuage the disappointed Rajaiah, who had held talks with Congress key leaders to shift his loyalties before the Assembly elections, the BRS made him the chairman of the state Rythu Bandhu committee.

“The Madiga community was deeply disappointed by the BRS which denied MLA ticket to me. For the past six months, me and my followers have been going through a hard time. I thought that the party leadership would invite and console me. But there has been no response to date. There is no proper recognition of the true and committed workers in the party. The BRS will face a lot of problems in the coming days,” he said.

It is learnt from the party sources that another senior leader and former minister Enugala Peddi Reddy is also likely to quit the BRS and join the Congress. Peddi Reddy who worked as incharge of Huzurabad Assembly constituency played a key role in the victory of the BRS MLA Padi Koushik Reddy against Etala Rajendar. Peddi Reddy was also disappointed with the party leadership for not recognizing his services to the party.