Former Member of Parliament from Tirupati (SC) and Gudur MLA Velagapalli Varaprasad Rao formally joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday, after severing his ties with the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP).
A retired IAS officer, who had served in various positions, including as Collector of Kanchipuram in Tamil Nadu, he first took the political plunge in 2009 and contested in vain after receiving a ticket from film actor K. Chiranjeevi’s Praja Rajyam Party (PRP).
After switching to YSRCP, he contested and won in the 2014 general elections. As a Member of Parliament during the 2014-19 tenure, he had landed several developmental projects for the Tirupati (SC) constituency. However, the YSRCP leadership sent him to Gudur in 2019 to fight the assembly elections, which he won with ease.
After joining BJP at New Delhi, Mr. Rao hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a visionary bent on cleansing the political system and working for the upliftment of the weaker sections. There are high expectations that his candidature for the Tirupati (SC) Lok Sabha seat will be announced once again.
