HYDERABAD: The Telangana Congress, which faced rough weather in the Munugode bypoll, was yet again in trouble with one of its senior leaders and former minister, Marri Shashidhar Reddy, slamming the state party leadership and announcing that he would soon be joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Shashidhar Reddy’s criticism of TPCC president A. Revanth Reddy on Saturday and his announcement that he would to join the BJP, was swiftly met with an expulsion from the Congress which said his actions attracted the party’s ‘sacred disciplinary rules’.
The state Congress also said that it had sent its expulsion notice to the party high command for ratification.
Shashidhar Reddy, the son of former chief minister Marri Chenna Reddy, had on Friday met Union home minister Amit Shah and other BJP national leaders in a declaration of his intent to join the party.
On Saturday, chatting with reporters in New Delhi, Shashidhar Reddy, a former vice-chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority during the UPA regime, slammed Revanth Reddy saying the TPCC chief did not care for teamwork and insulted senior party leaders and was not available for anyone in the party.
He also said that he had opposed Revanth Reddy’s elevation as TPCC president and had also informed the Congress’ national leadership, adding that he had briefed the party high command about the goings on in Telangana Congress three months ago.
“There is a lot of infighting in the Congress, which has lost direction and is suffering from a cancer that is not curable,” he said.
He said that there were several other disgruntled leaders in the party, who were planning to exit Congress. “I always thought I would never leave the Congress but it has become inevitable given its current state,” he said.
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