Telangana TDP president Kasani Gnaneswar resigns from party

Hyderabad: Telugu Desam Party's Telangana unit president Kasani Gnaneswar on Monday announced the resignation of his membership following the party's decision not to contest in the November 30 assembly polls in the state.

Announcing his resignation at a press conference, Gnaneswar said he took the decision because he and the party workers in Telangana were thoroughly disappointed with the decision of the top leadership.

“We were fully prepared to contest in the polls. There was no response (from the top leadership of the TDP) as to why the party is not contesting in the polls. We cannot do injustice to the party cadre being in the party. So I decided to resign from the party,” he told reporters.

He said he would hold discussions with his followers on his next course of action.

The party decision to not contest in the polls was conveyed to Gnaneswar when he met former chief minister and TDP supremo N Chandrababau Naidu at the Rajamahendravaram central prison in Andhra Pradesh recently.

Currently, Naidu is under judicial remand in the central prison for allegedly misappropriating funds from the AP Skill Development Corporation, which resulted in a purported loss of over Rs 300 crore to the state exchequer.

Gnaneswar had earlier said the TDP would contest in the polls. He could not be reached for his comments.

The TDP which managed to win only two seats in the 2018 assembly polls in Telangana polled 3.51 per cent of votes in the last assembly elections. It had a pre-poll pact with the Congress and CPI.

The Janasena party, led by actor-cum-politician Pawan Kalyan, which has tied up with the TDP in AP, has announced a list of 32 candidates for the assembly polls in Telangana. Janasena is an NDA partner.