Hyderabad: In yet another setback to the Congress in Telangana, its senior leader and former MLC Ponguleti Sudhakar Reddy on Sunday resigned from the party and joined the BJP.
In his resignation letter sent to Congress President Rahul Gandhi, Sudhakar Reddy, a former secretary of AICC, said, "Unfortunately the traditions and values of Congress party have changed contrary to its principles. Money influence has increased during allocation of tickets in Telangana Assembly elections in 2018, MLC elections and also coming Lok Sabha elections."
"It is shocking to find that crores of rupees is being sought for allocation of tickets. This kind of commercialisation of ticket allocation in Indian National Congress forced me to consider leaving the party and I am rendering my resignation," Reddy said.
"There are a lot of middlemen, there is no certainty if voice of the loyalists are reaching the leadership," he said.
"I had been with Congress for last 40 yrs&faced humiliation at times. Yet I worked for party. We lost badly in Telangana in last elections due to failure of local leadership. LS elections are being contested under same leaders," ANI quoted Reddy as saying.
Referring to the air strikes carried out by IAF in Pakistan, Reddy said he was annoyed with the attitude of Congress and its prominent leaders as their stand on the issue of terrorism and national security had been "inconsistent".
Reddy met BJP President Amit Shah in New Delhi on Sunday night and officially joined the party. He told PTI that he wanted to work under the strong leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the larger interest of the nation. "I am confident Modiji will again become the Prime Minister. Being a worker of BJP I will concentrate on strengthening the party. I am not joining the party seeking any post," Reddy, whose MLC term ended on March 29, said.
Reddy added that he would attend Modi's rally in Hyderabad on Monday.
Recently, senior Congress leader and former Minister D K Aruna had quit the Congress and joined the BJP and was the party's contesting candidate from Mahbubnagar Lok Sabha seat.
The Congress is the main opposition in Telangana, where it had won 19 seats in the December 7 assembly elections.
The Congress is in a turmoil as 10 MLAs have announced their decision to quit the party since the beginning of this month and join the TRS, which now appears to have the momentum ahead of the April 11 Lok Sabha poll.
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