TDP’s Telangana working president Revanth Reddy resigns

Hyderabad, Oct 28 (IANS) Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in Telangana received a jolt on Saturday as its state working president A. Revanth Reddy resigned from the party.

Revanth, who plans to join the main opposition Congress party, submitted his resignation to the TDP's national president and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu in Amaravati.

The young leader called on Naidu in here and submitted his resignation from the primary membership of the party. He stated in his letter that he had the utmost respect for Naidu's leadership.

The move came on a day when Naidu had called the party's Telangana leaders including Revanth to Amaravati to discuss the party affairs.

Naidu had met the TDP leaders here on Friday but the meeting was inconclusive. Several TDP leaders including state president L. Ramna and M. Narasimhulu were demanding that Revanth be expelled from the party for his open moves to cross over to Congress.

Revanthhad reportedly called on Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi and conveyed his decision to join the party.

Hailing from Mahabubnagar district, he was considered one of the key leaders of the party in Telangana. In the 2014 elections, he was elected to Telangana assembly from Kodangal constituency.

In 2015, he was caught red-handed by Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) while offering Rs 50 lakh to nominated member of Telangana assembly Elvis Stephenson to lure him to vote for TDP candidate in legislative council elections.

He had recently made a sensational allegation that some Andhra Pradesh ministers got contracts worth hundreds of crores from Telangana government. He was also unhappy with some TDP leaders of Telangana for favouring a tie-up with ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS).

TDP has considerable weakened in the state following defection of 12 of its legislators to TRS during last three years.

With Revanth's resignation, TDP's tally in 119-member assembly will reduce to two.