Hyderabad, Oct 13 (UNI) In a major setback to the Congress party ahead of elections in Telangana, Senior congress leader and former TPCC President Ponnala Lakshmaiah tendered his resignation to the Congress Party on Friday.
Upsetting injustice to BCs and missing his name in the party’s list for the November 30 assembly elections in the state, Ponnala, the former Minister, sent his resignation to AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge.
A BC leader said close to 40 ‘unexpected’ names made it to the list sent to the screening committee.
He reportedly resigned from the Congress party because he was denied a ticket to contest from the Jangaon assembly seat.
The 79-year-old Ponnala was appointed president of the newly created Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) on March 11, 2014 after the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh and had served four terms in the Assembly from the Jangaon Constituency in Warangal District.
He is a former member of Indian National Congress party.
Born on Feb 15, 1944, Ponnala had served as the Minister for Information Technology and Communications for the state of Andhra Pradesh.
Ponnala, who finished his M. S. Mechanical Engineering degree from Oklahoma State University in 1969,began his political career with the Congress in 1980.
In the 1992, Congress Plenary session at Tirupati, he successfully handled the foreign delegates, including prime ministers of neighboring countries.
In 1986, he launched a protest under the name “Samagra Pochampad Karyacharana Samithi” and worked with District Leaders to modify the irrigation scheme to benefit the chronically drought-prone area.
Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao laid the foundation on 30 June 1993. The project was under execution in “Jalayagnam” at a cost of Rs. 30 billion.
