Prominent Dalit leader and industrialist Gaddam Vivek is now virtually at crossroads in politics.
Having been denied the ticket for Peddapalli Lok Sabha seat by the Telangana Rashtra Samithi leadership, Vivek resigned from the party on Monday.
Now, he is not in a position to decide which political party he should join to sustain his political future.
Already, Vivek changed parties like his coats. He started his political career with the Congress and became an MP twice. After 2014 elections, he joined the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, but could not survive there for long. He returned to the Congress.
As there was no proper recognition to him in the Congress, Vivek returned to the TRS again a couple of years ago amidst a lot of fanfare. He was given the post of advisor to the Telangana government on inter-state affairs.
He expected the MP ticket from Peddapalli in 2019, but finally, TRS president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao showed him the exit door.
Sources said KCR suspected the loyalty of Vivek towards the party, as his elder brother G Vinod contested as a TRS rebel on the Bahujan Samaj Party ticket from Bellampalli assembly constituency and Vivek extended him financial support.
TRS candidates Koppula Eshwar from Dharmapuri and Balka Suman in Chennur told KCR that Vivek tried to sabotage their victory.
Vivek is now alleging that KCR had humiliated him in the last couple of years. Though he was an advisor to the Telangana government, he had never been extended any protocol formalities.
He declared that he would not contest the elections from Peddapalli either as an independent or from any other party because of lack of time. Apparently, he is toying with the idea of joining the BJP sooner or later.
