D Srinivas quits Congress within 24 hrs of joining; MP Arvind’s future too comes under cloud

HYDERABAD: Every one thought it was a homecoming of a prodigal son. But it turned out otherwise with the entry into and exit from the Congress by former APCC president D Srinivas.

He joined the Congress on Sunday and was welcomed by Telangana PCC president A Revanth Reddy and AICC incharge of Telangana Manikrao Thakre and a posse of senior leaders. Srinivas along with his elder son and former mayor of Nizamabad D Sanjay joined the party on Sunday and resigned on Monday.

In fact, Srinivas resigned from the Congress and joined the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and was duly honoured by Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao with a coveted Rajya Sabha seat.

However, after serving a full term as TRS member, Srinivas began playing truant and pushed himself into an oblivion. He became virtually inactive in politics. His younger son, Arvind Dharmapuri, was elected to the Lok Sabha on behalf of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2019 general elections from Nizamabad. He defeated KCR’s daughter Kalvakuntla Kavitha.

Ostensibly, Arvind took an aggressive posture against the TRS and KCR family.

However, Srinivas remained cleverly silent over his younger son’s political overtures. Considering his piquant situation, even the TRS leadership never pestered him to take up cudgels on behalf of the party and silence his son.

Srinivas, on his part, preferred silence to reciprocating the honour conferred on him by KCR.

The TRS (now Bharat Rashtra Samithi) treated the senior leader with utmost dignity and handled him with kid gloves.

After his retirement from Rajya Sabha, he deliberately kept his “options open”, as if to send feelers to the BJP that he’s ready to join the saffron brigade.

However, as he had failed to wangle an invitation from the top brass of the BJP, he began dabbling with the Congress again.

Recently when he fell sick and was admitted to hospital, senior Congressmen like V Hanumanth Rao called on him and paid courtesy call.

After protracted negotiations, Srinivas and his elder son joined the Congress. A day before his joining, a letter on his official letterhead was circulated in which he purportedly mentioned that he was not joining the Congress.

However, he was quick to react and scotched it off as a rumour floated by his detractors and that his letter was forged.

Ironically, on Monday, he resigned and his wife, Vijayalakshmi, signed a letter appealing to the Congress to “let him live in peace.”

She contended that “this is not a time to play politics. The way you have admitted him into the party was also incorrect. He suffered a brain stroke and a paralytic attack. Please do not use him for your politics. He also suffered convulsions last night, owing to the pressure you have mounted on him. I appeal to the Congressman weigh folded hands not to come this side again. Please let him live in peace at this age when he is suffering from serious health problems.”

What’s interesting here is that the letter that’s in circulation was addressed to “whomsoever it may concern”.

However, political grapevine has it that the Congress has refused to budge to the demand of Srinivas that they cannot make any offer either to him or his son. They cited old age and illhealth as reasons for denying Srinivas any position, and “bad reputation” as the reason for not promising a Congress ticket to his elder son in the upcoming elections.

The entry and exit of D Srinivas will surely cast its shadow not only on the sagging reputation of the Congress, but even on his younger son Arvind and his political future. If the BJP perceives that he’s also a redoubtable person, even his future within the party and also the prospect of his securing a renomination by the party would come under cloud.

Quaint are the ways of political loyalties of Congressmen. It becomes an interesting saga to watch how Revanth Reddy would work for washing the smudge that fell on the party with Srinivas’s fiasco and how Arvind Dharmapuri would manage his plummeting stock within the BJP.