New Delhi: Vyricherla Kishore Chandra Suryanarayana Deo, who was a member of the Congress and minister in the UPA regime, quit the party on Sunday. He cited the lack of responsiveness from the top leadership as the main reason for his resignation. 

Deo was reportedly disappointed by the Andhra Pradesh Congress’s " complete organisational paralysis", too. 

Deo told The Tribune that he felt like he had hit a wall after the Congress leadership was unresponsive to his communications for several months. 

“The Congress is extinct in Andhra Pradesh. It has gone down the hill. Party is in coma in Andhra Pradesh and there’s nothing that is being done or can be done to revive it… Four people take decisions in the Congress and there’s no space for anyone else’s opinion,” added Deo, as reported by the news website. 

Deo who was the minister of tribal affairs under the UPA regime said that he is only quitting the Congress and not politics. However, he didn’t disclose anything about his future plans. 

The fault lines between Deo and Congress first appeared back in 2017, when the former said that Rahul Gandhi needed to get rid of a dozen people around him to survive after the party was defeated in Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. 

“It is not important whether it is Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi or some other Gandhi. I will put a counter question to you. Can Rahul get rid of these people around him? If he can, he will survive. Otherwise he will also have to face the same music. It is very clear,” Deo said. 

Talking about the condition in Andra Pradesh, Deo then said, “In Andhra, there is a very strong resentment against Chandrababu Naidu. People are also not enamoured of Jagan Mohan Reddy. But if my people in charge from Delhi and in the state are totally sold out to Jagan, how do you expect the party to grow there? Every state has this kind of a particular situation where the party is decimated everyday.”