PUDUCHERRY:Congress MLA from Yanam, Malladi Krishna Rao, is likely to quit Congress by the end of this month and formalise his association with the ruling All India NR Congress (AINRC) when the Chief Minister, N Rangasamy, is scheduled to visit Yanam on June 6.
“I will take a decision with regard to the Congress before the end of the month and communicate it to the party,” Rao said over phone from Yanam. This comes against the backdrop of the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) writing to the AICC high command seeking disciplinary action against Malladi Krishna Rao for his alleged anti-party activities.
Rao, who had always remained close to the ruling party and got schemes implemented in Yanam to hold the vote bank in his favour, is following the same lines.
“Is there any alternative leader to Rangasamy who can take on him and come to power?” he asks indicating the reason for the change in his political stance.
On the other hand, it is a setback for the Congress, as the party has always retained the seat ever since Rao joined Congress after initially being independent. For the last 14 years Rao had been in Congress. Out of the 19 years he had been an MLA, the Yanam seat rested with the Congress. The dominance of Rao continues as was evident during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and is expected to be the same in 2016 elections. The Congress Lok Sabha candidate V Narayanasamy polled 17,000 votes more than the AINRC candidate R Radhakrishnan in Yanam constituency, a big margin considering the fact that the Congress was faring badly in all constituencies bordering Yanam in Andhra Pradesh. However, Rao who had been elected continuously since 1996 has decided against contesting the Yanam Assembly seat and has opted to support a scheduled caste candidate chosen by him to contest the seat in the 2016 Assembly elections. This candidate is likely to represent the AINRC, since Rao had stated that he would support AINRC in the 2016 Assembly elections.