HYDERABAD: Days after he announced that he would quit as MLA, former minister Etala Rajendar submitted his resignation from the Assembly in the official format to Assembly secretary Narsimhacharyulu on Saturday.
After one-and-a-half hours of handing over the letter, Assembly Speaker Pocharam Srinivas Reddy accepted Rajendar’s resignation and released a gazette about the vacancy in the Huzurabad Assembly segment.
The Assembly secretariat informed the Central Election Commission about the vacancy in Huzurabad, setting the stage for the byelection.
On April 30, Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao, who had ordered an inquiry into the land grab allegations against the then minister, sacked Rajendar from the ministry. Since then, Rajendar has been at war with Chandrashekar Rao and has now decided to join the BJP.
Before submitting his resignation letter, Rajendar spoke to the media at Gun Park where he paid tribute to martyrs of Telangana along with former MLA E. Ravinder Reddy, Karimnagar ZP ex-chairman Tula Uma and several other leaders.
He said he had fought many battles for Telangana and now Chandrashekar Rao was adopting a dictatorial attitude in the state. Rajender said the bypoll to be held in Huzurabad was like battle of Kurukshetra and that it was going on in between the Kauravas and Pandavas of Huzurabad.
He said his agenda was to build a grave for Chandrashekar Rao’s dictatorship and that he would win Huzurabad bypoll and uphold his self-respect. He alleged that the Chief Minister was busy playing politics when the people of Telangana were suffering from Covid-19.
Rajendar alleged that many joined the TRS without winning elections and resigning from other parties and continuing as ministers without ethics.
However, he said arrests were not new to him and his goal was to liberate Telangana from dictatorship. "Everyone from the RSU to the RSS is coming together to end the KCR regime,” he said.
He alleged that minister K.T. Rama Rao had conspired to defeat him in Huzurabad in 2018 itself, and had given money to Congress candidate Koushik Reddy and raided his house. “Koushik Reddy is receiving orders from Pragathi Bhavan every day and he is speaking as per their directions,” said Rajendar.
Quitting Assembly not new for Etala
After the formation of Telangana, Etala Rajendar is the first person to submit resignation in ‘Speaker format’, which was accepted within hours of submission.
Rajendar has resigned from the Assembly thrice in his career. He had resigned as MLA for achieving separate Telangana in 2008 and again in 2010 and won both the bypolls.
Rajendar will leave for Delhi on June 14 along with BJP leaders from the state. It has already been decided that Rajendar will join the BJP in the presence of top leaders such as Union home minister Amit Shah, party president J.P. Nadda and party’s TS incharge Tarun Chugh.
