A day after it received a severe jolt by the defection of its floor leader in the State Assembly E Dayakar Rao to the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti, the Opposition Telugu Desam Party on Thursday nominated A Revanth Reddy as its new leader in the Assembly.
In the new flood of exodus from the party, TDP lost two more MlAs in Telangana E Dayaka Rao and T Prakash Goud to the TRS. Dayaka Rao’s defection was specially a debilitating blow as he was the senior most TDP leader in Telugu and a key confidant of party’s national president N Chandrababu Naidu.
Taken aback by the development Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday addressed a letter to Telangana Assembly Speaker Madhusudhan Chary informing that Dayakar Rao was suspended by the party because of his anti-party activities. He intimated that A Revanth Reddy will be the new leader of Telugu Desam Party in the Assembly.
Revanth Reddy, party’s working president in Telangana was known for his confrontationist approach towards the ruling TRS, was also at loggerheads with E Dayakar Rao.
The news of Dayakar Rao switching over his loyalties to the TRS was in the air ever since the TRS came to power in 2014 but it could not materialize as other leaders in ruling aprty resisted it.
However after the TRS completely wiped out the Opposition specially the TDP in GHMC elections, a fresh round of defections have begun from the TDP. KP Vivekananda, a TDP legislator from Qutubullahpur in Hyderabad joined the TRS on Tuesday. Next day Dayakar Rao and Prakash Goud met the Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao at his camp office and joined the TRS.
Speculations are rife that given his seniority, Dayakar Rao will be rewarded with a cabinet berth. Earlier also many defectors from the TDP were given important positions in the cabinet. They include T Srinivas Yadav who became commercial taxes Minister. A non legislator Tummala Nageshwara Rao who came from TDP was also made a Minister. Another top TDP leader Kadiam Srihari who joined TRS before the elections was made deputy Chief Minister.
With the latest defections the Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has succeeded in almost wiping out the TDP from the State. Nine of the 15 TDP MlAs in the State have so far joined the TRS and efforts were on to lure even the remaining members to fulfill the legal requirement of the merger of the TDP legislator party in the TDP.
“I am joining the TRS to ensure development of my constituency as well as the entire Telangana State”, Dayakar Rao said adding that the TDP had no future in the state as Naidu had lost interest in the party. He also blamed Revanth Reddy for his decision wondering why he was being given so much importance in the party. He predicted that two or three more TDP MlAs will join the TRS.