Former Telangana Health Minister Eatala Rajender on Friday announced his resignation from the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi, The Indian Express reported. He is expected to submit his resignation as the MLA from Huzurabad constituency to the Speaker of the Telangana Assembly on Saturday.
Rajendran was sacked from the state Cabinet on May 1 over allegations of land grabbing.
The former minister announced his decision after his three-day visit to Delhi, where he met Bharatiya Janata Party President JP Nadda. He is expected to join the saffron party, according to The Indian Express.
At a press conference on Friday, Rajender blamed his decision on the “dictatorial style” of functioning of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, The Hindu reported. “I could not work as a slave under him [Rao] and that is why I am resigning from the party,” he said, adding that he and other ministers were turned away on three occasions when they went to meet the chief minister at his home.
Alleging that there was no internal democracy within the party, Rajender said that differences between him and Rao had started cropping up five years ago, according to The News Minute. “These humiliations were not limited to myself alone, even [Finance Minister] Harish Rao faced discrimination,” Rajender alleged.
Responding to the land grabbing accusations against him, Rajender said that he was dropped from the Cabinet after initiating an inquiry against him on the basis of an anonymous letter.
“There were baseless allegations,” he said, according to The Indian Express. “Without even informing me or giving me a chance to explain and debunk the allegations, I was removed.”
An inquiry report on the matter submitted by the collector of Medak district had found that a firm called Jamuna Hatcheries, owned by Rajender’s family, had acquired land from assigned land owners. This was against the law as assigned lands given to those belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes communities cannot be sold or transferred.
A Telangana Rashtra Samithi member for 19 years, Rajender held the finance portfolio before becoming the health minister in 2019.
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