Day after Gandhi Bhavan visit, ex-MLA Dharmapuri Srinivas resigns from Congress

Hyderabad: In a rather peculiar turn of events, Dharmapuri Srinivas, former president of Andhra Pradesh Congress Party and ex-MLA of the state, resigned from the party.

He submitted his resignation letter on Monday, a day after he visited the Congress party office, Gandhi Bhavan, here.

Not only D. Srinivas but even his wife, Dharmapuri Vijaya Lakshmi, wrote a letter to the Congress party asking them not to pressurise him into joining the party.

In her letter to the Congress party, Vijaya Lakshmi wrote, “This is DS resignation to party today. This is not the way to use him for politics or force him to join the party. He suffered a brain stroke and paralysis in the past. He even got ‘fits’ due to Congress pressure yesterday. Let him live in peace at this age.”

Srinivas's elder son Sanjay who is currently with the Congress party alleged that his brother Arvind, a BJP MP (Srinivas's younger son) had forced his resignation. Sanjay was at the party office on Sunday, when his father joined the party. He alleged that Arvind who is currently in Hyderabad is worried about his father's health condition.

Visit to Gandhi Bhavan

Congress leaders were elated when the senior leader visited Gandhi Bhavan in a wheelchair on Sunday along with his attendants. Senior party leaders, including Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president Revanth Reddy, Uttam Kumar Reddy, Shabbir Ali, Renuka Choudhary, Ponnalal Laksmaiah, Komati Reddy, Anjan Kumar, and All India Congress Committee in-charge Manik Rao Thackeray surrounded him and the conversation was lively.

They posed with him for photographs which were also shared by the senior Congress leaders on social media.

Srinivas’s resignation letter the day after the visit is being taken with a pinch of salt. The Congress leaders were looking forward to the support from senior leaders who were once at the helm of affairs in the Congress party.

Protests in support of Rahul Gandhi

Congress party leaders said the protests against the disqualification of their leader Rahul Gandhi is now of prime importance to them.

The party organised Satyagraha Deeksha at Mahatma Gandhi Statue in Secunderabad. The protests were addressed by Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee working president Anjan Kumar Yadav, vice-president Mallu Ravi, and other senior leaders.