VIJAYAWADA: YSRC leader Yarlagadda Venkata Rao called on TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu at the latter’s residence in Hyderabad on Sunday. He is all set to join the TDP at a public meeting scheduled to be held in Gannavaram as part of TDP general secretary Nara Lokesh’s Yuva Galam Padayatra on August 22.
Speaking to media persons later, Yarlagadda opined that one should be a people’s representative for existence in politics. Though he contested from Gannavaram on the YSRC ticket in 2019, the party leadership had sidelined him after the TDP MLA from the constituency extended his support to the ruling party, he said.
Reiterating that his followers in Gannavaram have been facing severe hardship for the past three-and-a-half-years, he said the local leaders were neither given nominated posts nor allowed to contest the local body elections. When asked whether he got any assurance from Naidu on the Gannavaram seat, Yarlagadda said he is ready to contest from any constituency as directed by the party leadership.
“I am ready to contest from Gannavaram or Gudivada or Vijayawada or any other constituency. As I have decided to join the TDP, I will follow the party directive,” he said, adding that he did not enter politics to make money.
Yarlagadda was made Krishna District Cooperative Central Bank Chairman after his defeat in the 2019 election. With TDP MLA Vallabhaneni Vamsi Mohan, who won from Gannavaram, extending his support to the ruling party, Yarlagadda came out expressing his dissatisfaction and finally decided to quit the YSRC.