KK takes parting shots at Cong

Confirms that there would be no change in his decision to join TRS on June 2A

Hyderabad: The outgoing Congress leader K Keshav Rao spit fire against the party. He said that the Congress party leadership had failed to recognise the aspirations of the people of Telangana and has become an anti-T party.A Talking to the media on Friday, Rao said that he was leaving the Congress only to achieve statehood under the leadership of TRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao. The former Congress Working Committee member said that he had no option but to leave the party as it was evident that the party would not bifurcate the State.

Rao explained that, for the past nine years, T Congress MPs from Telangana region tried their best to exert pressure on the high command by undertaking various protests inside and outside the Parliament and demanded the party to keep up its promise made in December 2009. But, Seemandhra leaders succeeded in influencing the party leadership not to agree for T state and hence the high command was not showing any concern even when about 900 people committed suicide for the cause and several people were leaving the party, he remarked.

He said that he had taken the decision to quit the Congress with a heavy heart only after closely watching the high command's attitude. "I am fully convinced that the Congress will not grant statehood to Telangana. The party has now become a betrayer and if I continue in the party I would be deceiving the people of the region," he said.

Replying to a question, Rao said that there was no question of going back on his decision to join the TRS on June 2. Expressing thanks to the Congress Party for allowing him to hold the highest positions in the party such as PCC chief's post, member of the Congress Working Committee and Rajya Sabha, Rao said he was heartbroken at the thought of leaving the Congress, in which his political career had begun 50 years back.

At the same time he said that there was need for the Congress party to indulge in some introspection since the Dalits in the party were feeling that they too were being ignored. Manda Jagannadham, G Vivek, S Rajaiah and even Deputy Chief Minister Damodar Raja Narasimha were of the same opinion, he informed. In support of his argument, he said that when Manda and others raised the T issue in the Parliament, the then finance minister Pranab Mukherjee called him and pulled him up for doing so.