Yet another Telangana Congress MLA announced that he is defecting to the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi, taking the overall number of defectors from the Congress into the TRS to 11.
Senior Congress leader Gandra Venkata Ramana Reddy, who enjoyed very big positions in the party, including chief whip post in the Y S Rajasekhara Reddy regime, defected to the TRS on Monday night, after denying media reports continuously.
The Congress high command respected his seniority and gave him the party ticket from Bhupallpalli to fight against then speaker S Madhusudhana Chary.
His wife Gandra Jyothi, who was made District Congress Committee president ignoring other seniors, also followed her husband to join the TRS.
What is worse is that Gandra Venkata Ramana Reddy has claimed that he had taken the decision respecting the aspirations of the people of his constituency.
Since the people had voted for TRS headed by chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, he said he had to respect the people’s sentiments.
This is nothing but a shameless statement. The people of Bhupalpalli did not vote for the TRS but the Congress; so, his decision has no support from the people.
If the people of the constituency had faith in KCR’s leadership, they would have voted for Madhusudhana Chary not Gandra. This applies to all the defectors.
Ironically, Gandra also says if necessary, he would quit all the posts that he had got as a Congress leader. Why “if necessary?” Gandra should stand an example for honest leaders by relinquishing his posts immediately before joining the TRS. It is necessary to prove his sincerity.
Unfortunately, the statement was not given by Gandra, but was prepared by the Pragathi Bhavan staff and he had just signed it. In fact, the format of the statement was same for almost all the Congress MLAs who defected to the TRS.
Congress Legislative Party leader Bhatti Vikramarka said the MLAs should feel ashamed to say that they had no faith in the party high command. It was clear that these MLAs were lured by the TRS with money bags and posts, he alleged.
