The dust has barely settled from the Congress’ drubbing in Bihar, but its effects are already being felt across the country.
Apsara Reddy, who’d become the first transgender National General Secretary of the Mahila Congress in January last year, has quit the party. She’ll rejoin BJP ally AAIDMK, which she’d left three years ago.
Apsara Reddy had been appointed the first transgender National General Secretary of the Mahila Congres in the presence of then-Congress President Rahul Gandhi . The Congress had also played up her background on social media, sharing her videos as “Monday Motivation.”
But Apsara Reddy now seems disillusioned by the party which had thrust her into national prominence just a year ago. “In Tamil Nadu, there has to be a Tamil leader who understands problems of locals. Rahul sir & Sonia madam are very distant from Tamil people. I think Congress’ decimal performance across India proves it’s out of touch with people,” she told ANI.
Reddy was particularly scathing on the Gandhis. “I feel Rahul Gandhi’s performance & Sonia Gandhi’s control over the party have destroyed very root of the party here. Edappadi K. Palaniswami & O. Panneerselvam have been giving fantastic government in the state for every section of society,” she added.
Apsara Reddy also said women are not given due importance in the Congress. “Particularly, I wish to say that the ‘high command politics’ of the Congress will never be suitable for Tamil Nadu. In the Congress, everything is driven by the party’s national leadership. So, locally, the party is very weak. As far as Tamil Nadu is concerned, people wish that leaders reach out to them with welfare schemes. If I want to do something for the people of Tamil Nadu, I have to be with a political party from this state. So, I am returning to the AIADMK,” she told the New Indian Express.
Apsara Reddy becomes the second Congress leader from Tamil Nadu to desert the party in the last few weeks. Previously, Congress national spokesperson Khusbu Sundar had also left the party and joined the BJP.
