Hyderabad: Expressing their disappointment over former speaker of the assembly and Banswada MLA Pocharam Srinivas Reddy leaving the BRS to join the Congress, BRS leaders wondered what could have transpired to influence him to switch sides all of a sudden.
Addressing media at Telangana Bhavan on Friday, BRS MLA G Jagadish Reddy said that even on the day of counting for Lok Sabha polls Pocharam was with BRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) for the entire day.
“He told KCR that there was no need to take the election results seriously, and that the party was certainly going to come to power in the state again. We don’t know what was his weakness, or what attracted him suddenly to join Congress,” he said.
Questioning what else could the party have done for him, Jagadish Reddy said that whether or not he would get benefited by his decision, he would certainly accumulate ill-will among the people.
Recalling how BRS (then TRS) leaders had worked hard to get him elected in 2012 by-elections after he resigned from TDP and contested, former agriculture minister S Niranjan Reddy said that after he was elected again in 2014, he was made the first agriculture minister of Telangana, and in 2019, was made the speaker.
“All his requests were granted within no time. KCR sanctioned more 2bhk houses for Banswada than his own constituency. Even in the recent assembly elections he didn’t want to contest due to health issues, but he was given yet another opportunity,” Niranjan Reddy underlined.
He also pointed out how KCR often used to refer him as the “Lakshmi Putrudu” (son of goddess Lakshmi) in public as well as the party’s internal meetings, and had even made his son the DCCB chairman.
“We don’t know with what moral high ground Pocharam Srinivas Reddy is speaking. KCR held him in the highest esteem and gave him so many opportunities. It is unfortunate to see him leaving the party when it has been facing challenges,” he said.
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