Telangana: Former Congress leader Palvai Sravanthi joins BRS

HYDERABAD: A day after quitting the Congress, former Congress leader Palvai Sravanthi joined Bharat Rashtra Samithi today. BRS working President and Telangana Minister Kalvakuntla Taraka Rama Rao (KTR) was present during the programme held at Hyderabad.

After joining BRS, Palvai Sravanthi said, " I very strongly believe one needs respect and honour of being recognised as a leader. I found it totally lacking in the Congress party. This time the kind of glass ceiling and humiliation that I have encountered have given me a different perspective and view and a need for me to move forward, out of the old trap and into a new beginning"

Earlier, the Congress leader and spokesperson Palvai Sravanthi on Saturday announced that she is quitting the party in all capacities with immediate effect. Sravanthi said she had waited for a long period, with a hope that the leaders sitting in Delhi would act on the "collateral damage" the party was suffering in Telangana, thanks to "one person's attempts" to turn the party into a "commercial" entity.

In a strong attack on Revanth Reddy, Komati Reddy and Rajagopal Reddy, Sravanthi said that ever since Revanth was imported into the party, he had been scripting its end and nullifying the values and principles that the party stood for.

"It is highly deplorable how Rajagopala Reddy, who was responsible for Munugode by poll defeat and who was crying foul against Revanth was overnight accepted back and was given a ticket," Sravanthi said.

Earlier in a letter to Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, Sravanthi had written, "This brings me to a moment that I had never dreamt of, would dawn in my life and in my political career, when I had to bid goodbye to the party that I regarded more than anything in my life."

Sravanthi said that the Telangana Congress is not the same that it used to be earlier. "The party, at least at the Telangana level, does not seem to carry the same soul and character that made it what it is today, the beacon of hopes for the hapless, the ambassador of equality and simplicity, and the symbol of strength for the needy," she said.

Sravanthi alleged that the party has turned into a commercial organization and a profit-making entity. "I can assert that the party's original persona in my state has been completely mutilated, and in its place, we see a commercial organization and a profit-making entity that ensures the party goes against the grain at every stage," she said.

Sravanthi said that the party did not follow the Udaipur Declaration and those who deserved tickets were denied. Thanking the Congress leadership for the opportunities bestowed on her, she had asked the Gandhis to step in to control the damage in the state and fix the "chronic disorders" in the party.

Telangana will go to polls in a single phase on November 30. The counting of votes for Telangana, along with those of four other poll-bound states, has been scheduled for December 3.