VIJAYAWADA: YSR Congress' Mangalagiri MLA Alla Ramakrishna Reddy tendered his resignation on Monday. He gave up his party membership as well.
The two-time MLA was reportedly unhappy with the party leadership ignoring him over the past few months. He handed over his resignation to the Speaker (Officer on Special Duty) Satyanarayana Reddy due to the absence of Speaker Tammineni Sitaram.
Ramakrishna Reddy was elected as MLA for the first time in 2014 and again in 2019. Initially, he was in the Congress party for over a decade.
In 2019, TDP national general secretary Nara Lokesh entered the fray from Mangalagiri and lost the election by a margin of more than 9,000 votes to Ramakrishna Reddy. It was widely speculated then that Ramakrishna Reddy would be inducted into the Cabinet by Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy.
Jagan Mohan Reddy, too, during the campaign before the 2019 elections, had publicly announced that Ramakrishna Reddy would be made a minister in his Cabinet if the people of Mangalagiri elected him.
Although Ramakrishna Reddy won, he was not inducted into the CM's Cabinet. His hopes of getting a berth in the reshuffle too were dashed as he was not considered.
Since then, Ramakrishna Reddy has been unhappy with the party leadership and distanced himself from the party activities.
On the other hand, his brother Alla Ayodhya Rami Reddy was nominated to the Rajya Sabha and was also made the party coordinator for Guntur and Krishna districts.
Speaking to the media after submitting his resignation, Ramakrishna Reddy said, "I worked honestly and served the people of Mangalagiri. I thank Jagan Mohan Reddy for the opportunity given to me. I am resigning due to personal reasons."
“Though it is painful, it is necessary to take a harsh decision,” Reddy said.
Following Ramakrishna Reddy’s announcement, CM Jagan closeted with Rami Reddy and other senior leaders to take stock of the situation. By evening, the party announced Ganji Chiranjeevi as the party in-charge of Mangalagiri. The BC leader had lost the Assembly election from Mangalagiri in 2014 by just 12 votes margin to Ramakrishna Reddy.
“Chiranjeevi was chosen to replace Ramakrishna Reddy as the party leadership decided to nominate a BC leader from Mangalagiri,” Rami Reddy said.
A member of TDP till 2019, Chiranjeevi had sacrificed his seat for Nara Lokesh.
Chiranjeevi hails from the Padmashali community and has a strong hold on the Mangalagiri segment which has a considerable presence of weavers. He is also APCO (Andhra Pradesh State Handloom Weavers Cooperative Society) chairman.
With Nara Lokesh likely to contest from Mangalagiri again, the YSRC reportedly decided to field Chiranjeevi hoping that he will be able to attract BCs in the 2024 elections.
(With online desk inputs)