TRS Member of Legislative Council Ramulu Naik was suspended from the party on Monday for shifting loyalties towards the Congress. There were rumours that Ramulu, who was disgruntled with the TRS for denying him a seat at Yellandu, had met the Telangana Congress Committee chairman RC Kuntia on Sunday at a resort.
According to reports, Ramulu went to the hotel where the Congress core committee meeting was underway and expressed his wish to join the party if they could assure him a ticket from Yellandu. However, these are unconfirmed reports.
Ramulu is a political leader from the ST (Lamabada) community and MLC from Narayankhet.
Before he was suspended from the party, TNM had sought a clarification from Ramulu about whether he had joined the Congress or was going to. However, Ramulu dismissed the speculations and news reports of him joining the Congress as false.
Speaking to TNM, he said, “I did not meet any Congress leader at any hotel. There is no truth to it. My loyalty was always with the TRS and I am still with the TRS. But you people (media) have aired a false story and widened the already existing rift with KCR,” he lamented.
He further said that he has written an open letter to TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao explaining his position. He said that he was making all efforts to reach KCR to dispel the rumours about his defection.
Ramulu had invited the media for a press conference at his residence in MLA Quarters at Banjara Hills at 3 pm to talk about his political future.
However, notwithstanding the claims made by Ramulu, party president KCR took a decision to sack him from the TRS with immediate effect for his anti-party acts before Ramulu addressed the media.
TRS general secretary Palla Rajeshwara Reddy made the announcement about Ramulu’s suspension to the media.
Ramulu lamented that misreporting by vested interests has cost him his political future. “A deliberate malicious campaign was carried out against me and cost me my membership with the TRS,” he said.