TRS Rajya Sabha member Dharmapuri Srinivas who is facing allegations of anti-party activities indirectly threw a challenge to the party leadership by asking to be suspended from the party if the leadership doesn’t like him to continue in it or else direct those who made charges on him to withdraw them by tendering an apology.
“If I resign from the party it would mean that the allegations levelled against me by member of the Lok Sabha K. Kavitha and elected representatives of the party are true. Therefore, kindly suspend me from the party,” he requested the party leadership in an open letter which was released in a press conference, here on Tuesday.
“I did not ask for the membership of the Rajya Sabha and I only aspired for some importance in the party. I was invited into the party by none other than TRS president and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao,” he said.
‘No liberty’
“To my mind there is no liberty within the party. If everyone is sent out from the party it would not be good for it. In fact more than half the members of the Cabinet are ones who opposed Telangana,” he added.
Mr. Srinivas went on to say that he had not indulged in any kind of anti-party activity and never talked in favour of the BJP. “Unfounded allegations have been levelled against me only to tarnish my political image. They have even dragged my family to the road by implicating my elder son Sanjay in false cases. My son was sent to jail in the middle of the night by bringing pressure on police,” he said, in the letter.
He said he discussed the matter of his younger son Aravind joining the BJP with Chief Minister twice. At that point Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao also had suggested to “let him go” and did not say anything else on his decision. Aravind, in fact, had wanted to join BJP in 2011 and had put it off. “People voted for the development of Telangana but not for its destruction,” he said indicating his discomfort in the party.
Asked when he would quit the party, he said he would take a decision at an appropriate time. However, he hastened to add that he would not resign from the party and expressed hope that the TRS leadership would take the decision on his suspension very soon. His close followers K. Gangadhar, P. Shobha, M. Sai Reddy and his younger brother D. Surender were present in the press meet. Mr. D. Sanjay was absent.