VIJAYAWADA: Labour and Employment Minister Gummanur Jayaram resigned from his minister and MLA posts and also from the YSRC on Tuesday. While several sitting MLAs and MLCs, a couple of Lok Sabha and a Rajya Sabha members have already announced their resignation, Jayaram is the first Minister of the State Cabinet to quit the party. He is all set to join the Opposition TDP in the evening.
Speaking to the media in Vijayawada, the two-time MLA said he was asked to contest from the Kurnool MP seat which he declined. Jayaram wanted to retain his Alur assembly segment in Kurnool district but the party was keen that he contest to the Lok Sabha.
Jayaram has distanced himself from the YSRC since the party announced him as the coordinator of the Kurnool MP seat. He even kept away from the Siddham meeting held at Raptadu in Rayalaseema region recently.
Announcing his resignation, Jayaram said he would join TDP during the Jai Ho BC meeting scheduled in Guntur district on Tuesday evening. "I will contest from the Guntakal Assemblys seat in Anantapur district," he mentioned.
Ridiculing Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy's claims of social justice and empowering BCs as backbone classes, the senior leader alleged that the BC communities have been given negligible importance by Jagan Mohan Reddy. "Though Jagan claims to have given good positions to the BC community, the leaders from the community do not really have any power," he said.
Jayaram said the undivided Kurnool district has 14 Assembly Constituencies. "In these 14 segments, there are only one muslim, two SCs and one BC MLA. Jagan Mohan Reddy has taken away the power from 1 Boya, 1 Muslim, and two SC, both from Madiga communities, in the district," he added.