Krishnaiah says not joining any party, pressure to float new political outfit for BCs in Telangana

Hyderabad: A day after quitting his Rajya Sabha membership, YSR Congress leader R Krishnaiah said on Wednesday that he will not join any party and there is pressure on him to float a political party for the Backward Classes.

Krishnaiah, a strong voice of the BCs, said he would raise issues such as increase in quotas up to 50 per cent for BCs in the legislature and as per population ratio local bodies.

Citing the reasons behind his resignation, he said being a member of the YSR Congress, he was unable to meet other political party leaders with whom the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy-led party has ideological differences, to take forward his BC agenda.

“There are offers from Congress and BJP. I also have a lot of pressure from my followers and well wishers to float a political party for BC. We are thinking in that direction also. I will take a call in a month,” Krishnaiah told PTI.

He further said he does not have any differences with Jagan.

Amid a stream of desertions from the YSRCP following its debacle in the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections, Krishnaiah's resignation on Tuesday came as a blow to the opposition party in the state.

YSRCP Rajya Sabha MPs M Venkataramana Rao and B Mastan Rao Yadav quit their posts recently.

Once by-polls are conducted, the Telugu Desam Party-led alliance in Andhra Pradesh is expected to win all three with its brute majority in the state assembly.

Currently, both the TDP and Janasena do not have representation in the upper house.

Krishnaiah is the national president of the Nation BC Welfare Association.

The YSRCP chief nominated him, though he was not a party member then, to Rajya Sabha in June 2022. He still has almost nearly four years of term left.

Meanwhile, sources in Telangana Congress said its Nagarkurnool Lok Sabha MP Mallu Ravi met Krishnaiah and discussed the present political situation and about the BC leader’s next plan of action in politics.

Later, Ravi told PTI that he invited Krishnaiah to join the Congress, to which the latter responded positively.