Bhupathi Reddy Quits TRS, Joins Congress

Alleging that Telangana protagonists were being insulted and rendered injustice by the TRS high command, dissident MLC Bhupathi Reddy today resigned from the party and joined the Congress in the presence of AICC chief Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi.

Speaking to the media later, Reddy said that he had been in the TRS since its inception and had helped strengthen the party in the district for 14 years, but was constrained to leave the party as Telangana betrayers were being given top priority and positions in the party.

He further alleged that caretaker Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao had failed miserably to develop the state in any sector in the last four-and-a-half years.

Reddy claimed that KCR had transformed the surplus Telangana into a debt-ridden state. The real farmers were not getting any benefit from the Rythu Bandhu scheme, and the state government had failed to announce a remunerative price for farm produce, he said. Also, KCR had promised the STs 9% and the Muslims 12% reservations, but had failed to keep his promise. And KCR did not even help even 400 of the 1,200 people who had sacrificed their lives for Telangana, he claimed.

KCR was being surrounded by Telangana betrayers, Reddy also said. People who had berated KCR and obstructed the Telangana movement were inducted into the cabinet, and the TRS was alienating and expelling the leaders who had served the party sincerely, he claimed.

The Congress belonged to the weaker sections and backward classes, and everything was possible with that party, and hence he was joining it, he said. He also announced that he would contest from the Nizamabad Rural constituency.

Another disgruntled leader, Prof Vidyasagar, also said that though people like him had participated in the Telangana movement since its inception, the TRS was giving tickets to betrayers.