BJP Leader Ananda Bhaskar Joins TRS

Former Rajya Sabha member Ananda Bhaskar Rapolu joined the Telangana Rashtra Samithi at the Telangana Bhavan on Wednesday.

TRS working president K T Rama Rao welcomed Rapolu into the party.

A member of the Padmashali (traditionally weaver) community, Rapolu was disappointed at the GST on handloom products, among other things, which he said led him to leave the BJP.

Speaking on the occasion, KTR, referring specifically to Rapolu's grievance, said that the textile sector was the second largest employer after agriculture in India, and that the sector provided direct and indirect employment to lakhs of weavers and allied workers in the country. However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi with his "lopsided policies" was doing a lot of injustice to the weaver community, KTR claimed.

"Modi is attempting to push the handlooms and textiles industry into a crisis by imposing taxes and abolishing all schemes for the welfare of weavers in the country," KTR alleged.

Earlier, Rapolu had resigned from the primary membership of the Bharatiya Janata Party. In his letter to BJP national president J P Nadda, Rapolu alleged that the union government had shown a step-motherly treatment towards Telangana, and had snatched away several rightful opportunities from the State.

He also said that the GST on handloom products was severely affecting the weavers, and that the observation that welfare was a freebie had shaken him to the core.

Rapolu said that for the last four years, he was ignored, humiliated, underrated and excluded in national roles.