Hyderabad: Senior Congress leader and former AICC secretary Ponguleti Sudhakar Reddy resigned from the party on Sunday and met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi ahead of joining the BJP.
His term in the Legislative Council as a Congress member ended on Friday. He is the second prominent Congress leader in Telangana state to join the BJP after former MLA D.K. Aruna.
In his resignation letter to Congress president Rahul Gandhi, he alleged that Congress leaders in Telangana state sold tickets in the Assembly elections, MLC elections and for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
In his letter, he stated that he was 'politically born' in the Congress and had worked in various wings of the party for almost 40 years, from his student days.
“Unfortunately the traditions and values of the Congress have changed contrary to the principles of party. Money influence has increased in allocation of tickets in Telangana Assembly elections of 2018, MLC election and Lok Sabha elections of 2019,” he wrote.
He said it was shocking that crores of rupees was sought for allocation of party tickets. “This kind of commercialisation of ticket allocation in Indian National Congress forced me to think about leaving the party.”
He said the reason for corrupt and bad practices was the failure of the state leadership. “I tried my best to convey the situation, but the high command is not receptive due to middlemen,” he said in the letter.
Mr Sudhakar Reddy said that since the party has failed to understand the sentiments of the people, he felt that it was not ideal to continue working with the “middlemen” and “irresponsible persons” in the Congress.
Mr Reddy said he was disappointed by the resp-onse of the Congress to the post-Pulwama airstri-ke. The stand of party leaders on the issue of terrorism and national security had been “inconsistent”, he said.
