Former Minister and senior leader Danam Nagendar, who has resigned from primary membership Congress party has blamed his quitting on the caste discrimination in the party in Telangana.
Nagendar' resignation was being seen as a big setback for for the Congress party in Telangana as he was quite influential in Hyderabad and surrounding areas and apart from winning Asifnagar assembly seat thrice had headed the Greater Hyderabad unit of the party in the past. Nagendar who had served as a minister in YS Rajasekhar Reddy cabinet as a minister was likely to join the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi shortly.
There were also speculations that another senior leader and former MlA from Hyderabad Mukesh Goud and his son Vikram Goud were also likely to follow the suit.
Addressing a press conference on Saturday Danam Nagendar lashed out at the state party leadership for neglecting the backward castes leaders and only leaders from a particular caste (Reddy) getting preference in party posts.
Danam, who is a backward class person said that earlier the BC leaders like K Keshav Rao and D Srinivas had also quit the Congress and joined TRS because of their humiliation. Now a leader like Ponnala lakshmaiah was also being neglected in a similar manner and was not even informed about the public meeting in his own district.
He said that the problem of groupism in Telangana Congress was so bad that as soon as some positive reports appeared in the press about the state Congress Chief N Uttam Kumar Reddy other leaders rushed to Delhi to lodge a complaint against him.
In a clear indication that Nagendar was headed towards the ruling TRS he showered praises on the Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and compared him to former Chief Minister YSR for his had work and innovative policies.
“I feel proud looking at KCR and his work”, he said.
Observers say that Danam is the latest name in the long list of key leaders who left other parties to join TRS. In view of the faction fight in the Congress KCR has stepped up his efforts to attract the leaders of other parties.
This setback for Congress has come at a time when it was showing first signs of recovering from a long hiatus and putting up a challenge to the TRS.
Meanwhile the state Congress president Uttam Kumar Reddy left for Delhi this morning on a summon from the central leadership of the party. Earlier this week a group of state Congress leaders had met the party president Rahul Gandhi In Delhi and complained against him.
Meanwhile another senior Congress leader belonging to the backward class has come out in open saying injustice was meted out to him. Former member of Rajya Sabha V Hanumantha Rao told the media on Saturday that Danam Nagendar's allegation of injustice to the BCs in the state Congress was true. “But there is no question of me becoming afraid of the upper caste domination and leaving the party”, he said.
Hanumantha Rao pointed out that he was with the Congress party from the beginning and will remain with the party till his last breath. “If there is an injustice with the backward classes we should raise our voice on the party forum and fight against it. I will remain the party and will work to bring the party to power in 2019”, he said.
