Putting speculations about her political future to rest, the former Union Minister of State for Commerce, D. Purandeswari, said she was planning to join the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Addressing the media here on Thursday, Ms. Purandeswari said that she would be leaving for New Delhi on Friday to meet the BJP leadership and express her willingness to join the party.
While Visakhapatnam would be her primary priority, she said if she joined the BJP, it would be done without any demands.
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Elaborating on why she had decided to quit the Congress, she said she was hurt by the way the party treated her and other Ministers from Seemandhra region.
“The party neither stood by me when I spoke in favour of bifurcation nor did it pay heed to suggestions made by the Group of Ministers,” she said.
Today, Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh was claiming that the package was suggested by the Congress Ministers fearing that the credit might go to the BJP.
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But in reality, the suggestions made by the Congress leaders were ignored, she pointed out.
Though she had resigned the day the A.P. Reorganisation Bill was passed in the Lok Sabha, no one from the party had bothered to ask her why she did so. “Despite being committed to the party in the time of crisis, the Congress leadership ignored me,” she said.
Meanwhile, some of the Congress activists expressed displeasure over her decision to join the BJP as they wanted her to join the Telugu Desam Party.