Ahead of the Munugode bypoll on November 3, ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) has suffered a setback with its senior leader and former member of parliament from Bhongir, Dr Boora Narsaiah Goud, quitting the party. According to sources, he is likely to join the BJP.
In a three-page letter addressed to TRS president and Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR), Dr Goud said meeting him even for a few minutes to bring to his notice the problems faced by the people, had become more difficult than securing a separate Telangana state.
Dr Goud said despite being a successful medical practitioner, he had joined the struggle for a separate Telangana state in 2009, but recent developments related to the Munugode bypoll had made him feel that the party no longer needed him.
Dr Goud, who was in-charge of party affairs at TRS in the Bhongir parliamentary constituency that he earlier represented, had participated in the filing of nomination papers by TRS candidate Kusukuntla Prabhakar Reddy on Thursday. Later that evening, he met BJP leaders in Delhi, sources add.
Blaming infighting in the TRS for his defeat by a slender margin in the 2019 parliamentary elections, Dr Goud said he felt humiliated multiple times after that.
He said while he was grateful for having got the opportunity to contest the election and serve the people, he was not willing to become a "slave" and was therefore calling it quits.
Dr Goud added that it did not matter that he was not given a chance to contest the forthcoming bypoll, but he disapproved of a backward caste person not being granted the opportunity. He said he was neither consulted on the choice of candidate nor was he invited to the meetings held in his area.
AdvertisementDr Goud belongs to a community with a significant number of voters in Munugode.
Earlier, he had taken credit for several development projects in Telangana after becoming an MP in 2014, including the establishment of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and development works on the national highway.
