Administering a rude shock to YSRC, its leader from Warangal Konda Surekha on Monday shot off a stinker to party president YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, asking him to show one reason why any Telangana leader should stay in the party.
Surekha, who took up cudgels against the party leadership ever since its Seemandhra MLAs quit in protest against the ‘move’ by Congress to divide the state, wanted Jagan Mohan Reddy to spell out the party’s stand vis-a-vis bifurcation. She described him as one who was keen on making lakhs of crores of rupees and said the YSRC has become a private limited company. Brokers masquerading as YSRC leaders were making money by selling Assembly tickets, she alleged.
Surekha, who met party honorary president Vijaya Lakshmi two days ago, sought a clarification on whether 16 Seemandhra MLAs resigned on their own or in pursuance of a direction from the party.
In the absence of any satisfactory explanation, Surekha, wrote a hard-hitting open letter to Jagan Mohan Reddy, asking him to explain if the party stood by the stand announced at its first plenary at Idupulapaya in Kadapa at the memorial of the late YSR.
“Has our party changed its stand on Telangana? At the party’s first plenary in 2011, you had said you would not oppose Telangana if it is delivered. You had said you would respect Telangana movement. But 16 of our MLAs have resigned. This shows that we are committed to Samaikyandhra. Isn’t it?” Surekha asked.
She recalled the party leadership reiterating the stand taken at Idupulapaya at the all-party meeting in Delhi and Vijaya Lakshmi stressing it in the campaign for Parakala Assembly byelection. “As people belonging to Telangana, we cannot oppose formation of T state at a time when it is going to be delivered,” she said and wanted to know if he had no respect for Telangana even though it is a fact that among those who died after the demise of late YRS, the number of victims from Telangana was more.
Comparing Jagan Mohan Reddy and YSR, she said, “YSR was entirely different. He never went back on promises or never beat a retreat once he took a stand. But your (Jagan Mohan Reddy’s) traits are diametrically opposite. You not only go back on promises but also beat a hasty retreat from your avowed stand, and on the top of it, you are obsessed with the idea of making lakhs of crores of rupees,” Surekha said.
Recalling the “sacrifices” she had made, including quitting her Cabinet berth, and later she and her husband losing their membership of Assembly and Council, and even facing threat to their lives while waiting for him at Mahabubabad railway station for his padayatra (which was aborted even before it began in May 2010), the former minister said they had done all this because they had great regard for YSR.
“After YSR’s death, we supported you because you are his son. We wanted to make you the chief minister and in the process, I had to lose my Cabinet berth. But I never cared,” she said. “But I am deeply hurt now because with the resignation of MLAs from Seemandhra, it has become clear that the party was opposing Telangana.”
She said she and her husband faced humiliation in the party and yet never said a word.