GUNTUR: A senior leader and former chairman of Andhra Pradesh state minorities commission Mohammad Ziauddin, resigned from the party in protest against the style of functioning of the Telugu Desam Party president and former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu.

On Monday Mohammad Ziauddin who is the brother of former TDP MP Late Lal Jan Basha, a very close aide of Chandrababu, wrote an open letter to the TDP chief expressing his abhorrence over the way the party was functioning and the way Chandrababu was playing politics in the name of caste, religion and region.

He said that his whole family worked with dedication to the party cause. ‘It is difficult for anyone who has self-respect, including us, to work with you any further when you are seen behaving in one way when you are in power and another way when you lose power,'' he said. He alleged that Chandrababu was trying to create a communal divide over the issue of alleged desecration of temples. Now, he is trying to create a rift among the communities, using the arrest of rebel YSR Congress Party MP Raghurama Krishnam Raju for his own political gains, he said. The TDP chief was creating unrest in the society by making an issue out of the arrest of Raju who resorted to unconstitutional methods.

" Your politics of dividing people in the name of religions, castes and regions has sounded the death knell for the TDP, '' he prophesied.

'' You have not changed. One can understand your desperation and the need to be in power by your actions and the way you are writing letters and the anxiety shown while protesting the arrest of Raghuram by the CID officials. One needs to understand who is lobbying in Delhi on his (Raju's) behalf. Working under your leadership is akin to committing suicide and it is clear that you will not change in this lifetime. My conscience does not permit me to continue in your party that is founded on the basis of conspiracies, backstabbing and power-mongering. That is why I am resigning, " Ziauddin stated in the letter.

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