VIJAYWADA: One more legislator from YSRC had joined the ruling Telugu Desam Party, taking the number of MLAs defecting from the Opposition Party in last three days to five.
T Jayaramulu, representing Badvel Assembly Constituency in Kadapa district, joined TDP on Wednesday. He is the second MLA from the Kadapa district, the native district of YSRC chief YS Jaganmohan Reddy to defect to the ruling party.
Jayaramulu accompanied by TDP MLA Bonda Umamaheswara Rao, leaders Payyavula Keshav and others met Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu in Vijayawada. He was formally admitted into the party with Naidu putting party kanduva around the neck of Jayaramulu.
The development had come as a shock to YSRC as Jayaramulu is the second legislator from Kadapa district, who had jumped the fence. Already Jammalamadugu MLA C Adinarayana Reddy along with his MLC brother C Narayana Reddy had joined TDP. From Kurnool, another Rayalaseema district, two legislators - Bhuma Nagi Reddy and his daughter Bhuma Akhila Priya - had joined the ruling party. Jaleel Khan from Vijayawada in Krishna district also had joined the party.
In a brief interaction with mediapersons after meeting the Chief Minister and formally joining TDP in his presence, Badvel MLA Jayaramulu said he had joined TDP for the development of his constituency and people.
“My constituency Badvel is the most backward in Kadapa district and in the state. In fact I had resigned to my job as municipal commissioner and entered the politics to serve the people of Badvel. As I now strongly believe that my constituency and the state can develop under the able leadership of Chandrababu Naidu, I joined TDP,” he said.
Asked, what assurances were given by the Chief Minister, Badvel MLA said Chandrababu Naidu has assured welfare and development of Dalits and is striving for completing the pending irrigation projects in Rayalaseema, that will address the drinking and irrigation water needs of his constituency.
On allegations that he was lured by the ruling party with attractive ‘packages’, he rubbished them as baseless and said he joined the ruling party for the sake of developing his constituency, which is backward, believing in leadership of Chandrababu Naidu. When asked was he ready to resign and contest the polls again, he said if needed he is ready to do it.
TDP leaders Bonda Umamaheswara Rao and Payyavula Keshav claimed that recent defections from the Opposition party are just beginning and more would happen in coming days. “Jaganmohan Reddy is his own enemy and his claims are just empty. He talks about ‘right’ and ‘morals’. Why was he silent, when his father YS Rajasekhara Reddy had resorted to operation Aakarsh in 2004,” Keshav said.
Interestingly, a YSRC MLA from Kadapa, the power base of YSRC happened on the first day of Chandrababu Naidu’s son Lokesh, the general secretary of the party had started his two-day Rayalaseema tour, apparently for engineering more defections from the opposition party.