Will Be With TRS As Long As I Am Alive: Padma Rao

Refuting speculations swirling around that he would defect soon, Telangana Assembly Deputy Speaker Padma Rao Goud said that he would remain in the TRS as long as he was alive.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, the Secunderabad MLA said that he was quite happy with the TRS leadership, and that there was no need for him to change his party.

"Some forces are spreading malicious propoganda against me that I am leaving the TRS. I have been with party president K Chandrashekar Rao since the launch of the Telangana agitation, and there is no need for me to look at other parties," Goud said.

Responding to persistent gossip about his alleged schmoozing with union minister Kishan Reddy, Goud said, "I have a cordial relationship with Kishan Reddy. I used to sit in the Assembly hall beside Reddy when he was an MLA. And I had invited Reddy to attend my daughter's wedding. He came to my residence and blessed my daughter. We can't look at this relationship from a political angle as we have known each other over the years."

Finding fault with the statement of former MP Bura Narsaiah Goud, who has quit the TRS recently and alleged that the leaders of backward classes were being insulted in the TRS, Padma Rao Goud said that it was not fair to level baseless allegations against a party when a person had decided to leave it.