Finally, after a month of his sacking from the TRS cabinet, Etela Rajender has submitted his resignation in speaker format to the Assembly secretary. Prior to that, Etela set out from his Shamirpet house ahead of a cavalcade and a motor cycle rally and reached Gun Park in front of the assembly to pay his respects to the Telangana martyrs.

Interestingly, as if to deny him a photo-op, Speaker Pocharam Srinivas Reddy was not present to receive the resignation paper. He cited Covid as the reason for skipping the programme. Eatala has submitted his resignation letter, containing a single sentence in speaker format, to assembly secretary. He said he was not allowed to take his friend and former MLA Enugu Ravinder Reddy to the media point to address the media.

But, his confusion over joining the BJP was very clear even at the time of his resignation. Speaking before the gun park, he said Left ideology was his DNA and that he was now joining the right ideology. But he said he was secular to the core. “Neither left nor right ….. my ideology is the service of the poor and the downtrodden,” he said. Etela said he was fighting against a despot.

Etela did admit that several of his Left colleagues, ideologues and intellectuals were against his joining the BJP. But, he had to take a stand and was hence joining the BJP. He said he would fight the bypoll in Huzurabad and said that he knew that KCR would use government power and money power to the hilt to defeat him. But, he said the fight in Huzurabad was going to be a fight between the people of Telangana and KCR’s family. He exuded confidence that he would come out victorious. He sought support from everyone from RSU to RSS to defeat KCR.

Etela is likely to join the BJP on June 14 in Delhi. He is likely to take the membership of the party in the presence of BJP national president JP Nadda.