Hyderabad: In a jolt to the Congress in Telangana, which is witnessing an increasing number of defections to the ruling TRS, popular youth leader Krishank Manne resigned from the party on Sunday.
Manne reportedly announced that he would formally join the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) today in the presence of Working President KT Rama Rao.
In a video, he is seen standing next to a heap of campaign material, where he says, "I want to tell all members of the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee, I am resigning from all posts - that of General Secretary and Official Spokesperson."
The youth leader further goes on to accuse the senior members of the party of destroying the Congress set-up in the state.
"I faced humiliation and have learnt that I will never get opportunities. Hence, with a heavy heart, I took this decision," he said.
"I was promised a ticket to fight polls. Battling injustice, I got campaign material worth Rs 15 lakh. Since they have my pictures printed on them, I am burning them. I will never come back," he concludes, before setting afire the heap of material.
Krishank gained prominence as a student leader from the Osmania University during the Telangana agitation. He was reportedly promised a Congress ticket from Secunderabad (Cant), but was denied it during the Assembly polls in the state in December 2018.
GoodBye @RahulGandhi ji . We have joined you with great belief but realise that your own @INCTelangana leadership doesn't believe in your ideas. They are highly feudal, anti dalit & anti youngsters. They hav no respect for workers commitment but greed only for money and power. pic.twitter.com/AkgMLfXbZQ
— krishank (@krishank9) March 17, 2019 " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data="
">GoodBye @RahulGandhi ji . We have joined you with great belief but realise that your own @INCTelangana leadership doesn't believe in your ideas. They are highly feudal, anti dalit & anti youngsters. They hav no respect for workers commitment but greed only for money and power. pic.twitter.com/AkgMLfXbZQ
— krishank (@krishank9) March 17, 2019GoodBye @RahulGandhi ji . We have joined you with great belief but realise that your own @INCTelangana leadership doesn't believe in your ideas. They are highly feudal, anti dalit & anti youngsters. They hav no respect for workers commitment but greed only for money and power. pic.twitter.com/AkgMLfXbZQ
— krishank (@krishank9) March 17, 2019
Making things worse for the Congress, he even shot out an open letter to Congress President Rahul Gandhi, saying the state unit of the party betrayed the students.
“Apart from being jailed during the Telangana movement, I was jailed during the struggle for justice to Rohith Vemula… I have come up the hard way without any godfather in politics. TRS gave youngsters abundant chances, making them parliamentarians, legislators and chairmen of nominated posts, but the Telangana Congress leadership betrayed the Osmania University students,” he wrote in the letter.
“I’m a Dalit who quit my job as Assistant Professor to give my full time to Congress, but the criteria here is money. The Peddapalli seat is announced to one Mr Chandrashekar who contested as a rebel Congress candidate in 2018 and joined days before the list was announced, which is shocking,” he added.
