KARIMNAGAR: The bleeding continues. Another Congress leader, this time TPCC SC cell chairman Arepalli Mohan, quit Congress to join the Telangana Rashtra Samithi. Mohan is one of many Congress leaders, including several MLAs, who have defected to the ruling party in the past few weeks. Mohan’s exit from Congress, and his subsequent induction into TRS by the party’s working president KT Rama Rao on Sunday, was not without drama. The former MLA was reportedly expecting Congress to name him as the candidate from Peddapalli Lok Sabha constituency.
However, AICC leadership chose to give the ticket to former minister A Chandrashekar. Upset at being ignored, Mohan on Saturday organised a press conference, apparently to announce he was quitting Congress for good. Learning of this, Manthani MLA from Congress D Sridhar Babu and senior Congress leader T Jeevan Reddy rushed to Mohan’s house to pacify him. Mohan agreed remain in the grand old party, or at least that is what he told Reddy and Sridhar Babu. On Sunday, Mohan took the plunge and finally joined TRS.
“I was attracted to the TRS government’s welfare schemes and its idea of ‘Bangaru Telangana’,” he told TRS workers present at the event.
Another leader from Karimnagar, TPCC spokesperson Regulapati Ramya Rao, who happens to be KCR’s niece, too resigned from the party recently.