WARANGAL: The Konda couple — former minister Surekha, and her husband and ex-MLC Muralidhar Rao — on Sunday said that they will neither leave Congress nor quit politics.
Addressing the party workers and their supporters in Warangal, for the first time since Surekha’s removal from the state Cabinet following her daughter Sushmita’s outburst against Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy,
Muralidhar Rao said: “We will not and should not quit the Congress. We will take the responsibility for securing 24 divisions, which fall under our Warangal East Assembly constituency, to help the party win the Greater Warangal Municipal Corporation elections.”
Recalling the events that led to his wife’s removal from the Revanth Reddy Cabinet, he said: “The Congress high command asked Surekha to issue an unconditional apology for the comments made by our daughter Sushmita. My wife decided to not apologise because we never did anything that reflected badly on the Cabinet.”
Turning philosophical, he said: “Whether we are given posts or not, we will continue to serve the party. Now, our efforts will be focused on helping the party to make Rahul Gandhi the prime minister.”
Murali also cautioned MLC Basavaraju Saraiah against levelling allegations against the Konda family. “Saraiah’s tenure as an MLC is expiring next month. He thinks that he will get another opportunity by criticising the Konda family. But he won’t get another opportunity as Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy knows everything about him.”
Surekha, meanwhile, said that she was depressed because she was removed from the Cabinet through no fault of her own.
“That’s the reason I didn’t meet you immediately. Many of you suggested that we stage a protest. But we are not in favour of such protests. The Konda family never worked against the Congress high command.”
