This story is from January 21, 2020

Leaving Congress biggest blunder on my part: Dharmapuri Srinivas

Senior politician and TRS Rajya Sabha member Dharmapuri Srinivas, popularly known as DS, said on Monday that leaving Congress was the biggest blunder of his 40-year long political career. The 71-year-old three-time MLA and former minister quit Congress on July 2, 2015, a year after Telangana was granted statehood by the then UPA government at the Centre in June 2014.
Leaving Congress biggest blunder on my part: Dharmapuri Srinivas
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HYDERABAD: Senior politician and TRS Rajya Sabha member Dharmapuri Srinivas, popularly known as DS, said on Monday that leaving Congress was the biggest blunder of his 40-year long political career. The 71-year-old three-time MLA and former minister quit Congress on July 2, 2015, a year after Telangana was granted statehood by the then UPA government at the Centre in June 2014.
Days later, Srinivas joined TRS to realise the goal of what he termed a “bangaru (golden) Telangana.” However, his honeymoon with the ruling TRS did not last long.
In the last couple of years, his relationship with TRS leadership strained further as he developed differences especially with former Nizamabad MP and chief minister’s daughter Kalvakuntla Kavitha. His younger son Dharmapuri Arvind is a BJP leader and represents Nizamabad in the Lok Sabha after defeating Kavitha in the 2019 elections.
Srinivas said he resigned from Congress owing to differences he had with the then Congress incharge of Telangana affairs Digvijaya Singh who, he said, had insulted him. Srinivas had served as the state Congress president twice and also as a minister in undivided Andhra Pradesh. He was the president of Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee when the party assumed power under the leadership of late YS Rajasekhara Reddy in 2004.
Ahead of the municipal elections, Srinivas dared the TRS leadership to take action against him. Speaking to newsmen in Nizamabad, he also took an indirect dig at chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao saying “father, son and daughter have become golden” in the name of achievign a golden Telangana.
He lambasted district TRS leaders for talking against him. He was reacting to the comments of minister Vemula Prashanth Reddy who, earlier in the day, said Srinivas did not do anything for Nizamabad despite serving as a minister, PCC chief and being in political life for 40 years. “Some people are asking me as to what I have done in the last 40 years. First, they should tell what they have done all these years.”
Srinivas said he allocated his entire MLA fund for a railway project in Nizamabad and also allocated funds for a sewer network. “I am ready to donate my house for a medical college building.” The former Congress chief said he did not speak on various issues earlier as he did not deem it right on his part to rake up controversies unnecessarily.
He appealed tothe people to vote for those who strive for development of Nizamabad.
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