After a 30-year-long stint in politics, TDP senior leader Dadi Veerabhadra Rao, who met YSRCP president YS Jagan Mohan Reddy in Chanchalguda jail on Saturday, met party honorary president YS Vijayalakshmi in the evening and formally joined the party.
Fearing his and his son’s political future, Rao quit the TDP ending his 30-year association with the yellow party right from NT Rama Rao’s time. Speaking to reporters at the jail after meeting Jagan, he said: “I heard about Jagan something evil. But, when I saw him in jail this morning, I saw the other side of the coin. It vastly differed from what I heard about him when I was in the Telugu Desam.” the once bitter critic of Jagan said.
Dadi was always in the forefront to attack Jagan over his alleged corrupt practices. But, on Saturday, he gave an explanation that he had to attack Jagan as it was a policy of the TDP. “I never had an opportunity to know the other side of the story as I was in the TDP. When I saw Jagan I realised that what I heard is different from what I saw now,” he said. “Injustice has been meted out to YS Rajasekhara Reddy’s family,” said Dadi who had once demanded takeover of Jagan’s alleged illegal assets. Sources said that Jagan, despite stiff resistance from Konatala Ramakrishna, decided to admit Dadi into the YSRCP.