Bharatiya Janata Party’s mission to become a major political force in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh received a big boost on Thursday with several prominent leaders from Telugu Desam Party (TDP) joining the party in New Delhi.
From Telangana, Tulla Veerender Goud, former president of TDP’s youth wing, donned the saffron shawl in the presence of BJP working president J P Nadda. BJP state unit president K Laxman, national general secretary P Muralidhar Rao and others were present.
Veerender is the son of veteran TDP leader and former Rajya Sabha member T Devender Goud, who held several posts in party and the government for over three decades. He unsuccessfully contested the last assembly elections on the TDP ticket from Uppal assembly constituency in Hyderabad and resigned from the party on September 30.
Similarly, from Andhra Pradesh, TDP legislative council member and former minister, Vakati Narayan Reddy, former minister Sanakkayala Aruna, former Nellore Zilla Parishad chairman Pathuri Nagabhushanam, former MLAs Thota Nagesh and Puthalapattu Ravi and senior leader G Chinna Satyanarayana also joined the BJP in the presence of Nadda and party’s Andhra unit president Kanna Lakshminarayana.
Among others who joined the BJP were: Congress leader Bobbili Srinivasa Rao, Jana Sena Party leader Ch Parthasarthy, former high court judge Nakka Balayogi and NRI Ramineni Dharmapracharam.
The defection of Veerender from Telangana and others in Andhra is a big blow to the TDP, which has witnessed several other senior leaders switch over after the party’s debacle in the recent general and assembly elections.
Within a month of the TDP losing power to YSR Congress party in Andhra in May this year, four of its senior Rajya Sabha members – Y S Chowdary, C M Ramesh, T G Venkatesh and Garikapati Mohan Rao resigned from the party and joined the BJP.
At least a dozen of the 23 TDP MLAs were expected to join the BJP before assembly speaker Tammineni Sitaram declared that he would disqualify the defectors.
However, many senior TDP leaders at the state level, including former MLA Thota Trimurthulu, Visakha dairy chairman Adari Anand and Ch Sanyasi Patrudu quit the TDP and some of them joined the YSR Congress.
In Telangana, too, leaders like former minister E Peddi Reddy and former MLAs Revuri Prakash Reddy and M Narasimhulu defected to the BJP. Some others like present Khammam MP Nama Nageshwara Rao and Sattupalli MLA S Venkata Veeraiah defected to the Telangana Rashtra Samithi.
