Telangana BJP leader Nagam Janardhan Reddy is likely to quit the party over dissatisfaction with the party leadership, which he believes has isolated him. Reddy expressed the view that since 2019 will be his last election, he wants a respectable exit from politics, which the party is not giving him.
Reddy, who won five consecutive terms as MLA from Nagarkurnool, said that the announcement whether he would continue with the saffron party or not will be made in a couple of months.
“My followers are going to decide about my political fate. They feel that the party has been undermining my leadership and capability. So far they have supported me and stood by all my decisions, and this key decision to quit the party or not will be taken by them,” he said.
In a phone-in interview with TNM, Reddy said that the party leaders had alienated him from party programmes and not giving the respect he deserves.
“I am a person with lot of self-respect and self-dignity. This is going to be my last election, I want to bid goodbye to politics in a respectable manner.”
Dejected over the party’s poor performance in the state, he said, “The BJP too struggled for a separate state. However, these party leaders failed in capitalising on it and taking credit for it. They are giving no contest to the ruling TRS party and are rather working as their allies,” he lamented.
He said that the party lacks vision and strategy to get a strong foothold in the state.
“There is no will to fight the TRS, they seriously lack determination. When I want to offer them my services to strengthen the party, they are not willing to utilise it,” Reddy said.
Refusing to comment on whether he will be joining the Congress, he said, “No decision has been made yet.”
Nagam Janardhan Reddy joined the BJP in 2013 after quitting the Telugu Desam Party (TDP). TDP was upset with his staunch support for the separate state against the party’s decision, following which he formed his own party – Telangana Nagara Samithi, which he later merged with the BJP. The 70-year-old leader won five consecutive times from the Nagarkurnool constituency, from 1994-2012.