Rahul Gandhi owes explanation on party’s double standards, says BRS

Questioning MP Rahul Gandhi, BRS leader S Niranjan Reddy points out that the Congress had promised to prevent defections in its election manifesto but failed to uphold this commitment in practice.

Hyderabad: Stating that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had adopted double standards on his commitment to prevent defections, BRS leader S Niranjan Reddy said on Saturday that the Congress leadership which was encouraging defections owed an explanation on this count.

Releasing to the media an open letter addressed to Rahul Gandhi questioning him on the issue of defections at press conference in Telangana Bhavan, Niranjan Reddy pointed out that the Congress had promised to prevent defections in its election manifesto but failed to uphold this commitment in practice.

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Congress party leaders in Telangana were boasting of taking six BRS MLAs, including the former speaker, Pocharam Srinivas Reddy into the Congress. Such defections should have been either opposed by Rahul Gandhi or the Speaker of the State Legislative assembly should have taken the initiative for disqualifying the members who defected from the BRS.

When Rahul Gandhi was deprived of his membership in Lok Sabha because of the machinations of the BJP, “we all sympathised with him”, he said adding that the Supreme Court come to his rescue and restored his membership.

Rahul Gandhi who had expressed his faith in the apex court on the occasion, did not take seriously the verdict of the Supreme Court on the automatic disqualification of the members defecting from one political party to the other.

He said the Congress party would pay its price for the double standards adopted by it on defections. Appealing to Rahul Gandhi to respond to the four page open letter sent to him on behalf of the BRS leadership, Niranjan Reddy wanted the Congress leaders to act on the guarantees and promises made to the different sections of the people before the BRS hit the roads protesting against the Government’s failure to fulfill them.

Referring to the meeting of the Chief Ministers of Telangana and AP scheduled to be held in Hyderabad later in the day, he said it was much ado about nothing. People of Telangana should be wary of attempts of Chandrababu Naidu to rule Telangana by proxy, he added.