Hyderabad Rebel Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) lawmaker from Andhra Pradesh’s Nellore (rural) assembly constituency, Kotamreddy Sridhar Reddy, on Tuesday announced shifting loyalties to the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), the principal opposition in the state.
Senior TDP leaders and former ministers Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy and N Amarnath Reddy, along with Nellore district TDP president Abdul Azis, held a meeting with Sridhar Reddy at the residence of party general secretary Beeda Ravichandra and invited him to join the TDP.
They requested Sridhar Reddy to join the ongoing padayatra led by TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu’s son and general secretary Nara Lokesh in Nellore district. The rebel YSRCP leader accepted the invitation and extended his support to the TDP.
Sridhar Reddy will be the third YSR Congress party MLA from the sate’s Nellore district to switch to the TDP, the other two are Venkatagiri MLA and former minister Anam Ramanarayana Reddy and Udayagiri MLA Mekapati Chandrasekhar Reddy.
All the three rebel MLAs, along with Undavalli Sridevi, another lawmaker from Tatikonda assembly constituency in Guntur district, were suspended from the YSRCP on March 24, on the suspicion that they had cross-voted in the MLC elections held under the MLAs’ quota, resulting in the victory of TDP candidate Panchumarthi Anuradha.
{{/usCountry}}All the three rebel MLAs, along with Undavalli Sridevi, another lawmaker from Tatikonda assembly constituency in Guntur district, were suspended from the YSRCP on March 24, on the suspicion that they had cross-voted in the MLC elections held under the MLAs’ quota, resulting in the victory of TDP candidate Panchumarthi Anuradha.
{{/usCountry}}Speaking to the reporters later, Sridhar Reddy said he was overwhelmed by being invited into the TDP, at a time when his own party had suspended him. “I will take up the responsibility of making arrangements for the “Yuva Galam” padayatra of Lokesh in my constituency and ensure that it gets an unprecedented response from the people,” he said.
On June 9, Ramanarayana Reddy met Chandrababu Naidu in Hyderabad and conveyed his desire to return to the TDP, which he had quit before 2019 general elections. Naidu has accepted the proposal and invited him back to the party.
Ramanarayana Reddy, along with another rebel YSRCP MLA Chandrasekhar Reddy, took part in the padayatra of Lokesh, who entered Nellore district on June 12. “All the three rebel YSRCP MLAs from Nellore would join the TDP after Lokesh completes his padayatra in the district and enters Prakasam district,” former TDP legislator S Chandramohan Reddy said.
In the 2019 elections, the YSRCP made a clean sweep by winning all the 10 assembly seats in the erstwhile undivided Nellore district and also bagged the Nellore and Tirupati Lok Sabha constituencies.
Senior YSRCP leader and Nellore (urban) legislator P Anil Kumar Yadav challenged the rebel MLAs to resign from their assembly membership and contest the by-elections. “If they win their seats again, I will quit active politics,” Yadav said.