Several months after bifurcation of the State, both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana continue to be in the grip of political churning as all the major parties are trying to expand and strengthen their bases at the cost of the rivals.
While in Telangana, two Telugu Desam Party MlAs formally joined the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti giving boost to Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao’s efforts to strengthen his party in the State capital, the Congress and the YSR Congress suffered a jolt in Andhra Pradesh.
Kanna lakshminarayana, one of the senior most Congress leaders from coastal Andhra has resigned from the party and met BJP president Amit Shah to announce his decision to join the saffron party.
lakshminarayana, is a five-time legislator from Guntur district and held many important portfolios in the Congress Government. He is also an accused in the disproportionate assets case of YS Jaganmohan Reddy. “I want to work to strengthen the BJP,” he said rejecting the criticism that he was doing it for the sake of power as the BJP is ruling at the Centre and was also an ally of the AP Government.
In another development, senior leader and former Minister Konathala Ramakrishna has quit the YSRCP and decided to return to the Congress fold. He was one of the several top leaders of the Congress to quit in protest against the bifurcation of the State earlier this year. He was reportedly unhappy with Jaganmohan Reddy for bringing his rival Dadi Veerabhadra Rao in to the party fold.
Meanwhile, with the two senior MlAs from Hyderabad joining the TRS, the ongoing fight between the Telugu Desam Party and the TRS is likely to intensify further.
T Srinivas Yadav, former TDP in-charge of Hyderabad unit and T Krishna Reddy, the former Mayor of Hyderabad, formally joined the party at a public meeting attended by the Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao. While T Srinivas Yadav is MlA from Secunderabad, T Krishna Reddy is the MlA from Maheshwaram constituency, one of the few TDP won in the last elections in Telangana.
Another TDP MlA, C Dharma Reddy, from Parkal in Warangal is also likely to join the TDP soon at another meeting to be held in his constituency.