Telugu Desam senior leader Dadi Veerabhadra Rao, a long-time comrade of party chief Chandrababu Naidu, bid adieu to the party on Thursday.
“Though it pains me a lot to quit the TDP with which I have had 30 long years of association, the circumstances in the party made me to leave the party. I am bidding adieu to the party now along with members of my family,” he said in the resignation letter.
Interestingly, his term in the Legislative Council ended on the same day.
His son Dadi Ratnakar, who is heading the Visakhapatnam Rural wing of the TDP, too resigned from the party.
Though Rao said he would decide his future course of action after holding a meeting with his supporters at Anakapalle on Friday, speculation is rife that he might join YSR Congress. He may contest the Anakapalle or Visakhapatnam West Lok Sabha seat and his son the Anakapalle Assembly seat on YSRC ticket. Rao’s social community, Gavaras, holds the sway in Visakhapatnam district.
Rao had been sulking and keeping away from party affairs ever since he was denied renomination for MLC seat.
Rao, one of the handpicked and politically nurtured of the first generation leaders of the TDP by NT Rama Rao, held several key posts in the party and also served as minister in the governments of NTR and Naidu.