HYDERABAD: For TRS leader and Rajya Sabha member D Srinivas, it is time now for homecoming. The prodigal son is likely to join the Congress at the party office in New Delhi on Friday.
Srinivas who was in Delhi on Thursday called on AICC chief Sonia Gandhi and discussed his political future with her for about 45 minutes.
Speaking to reporters later, he said it was a mere courtesy call and any decision about his future course of action would be taken only after discussing its pros and cons with his supporters back in Nizambad.
Ever since he fell out with TRS supremo and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao a year after he was nominated to Rajya Sabha in 2015 on TRS ticket, he has been more or less on a sabbatical, not showing any interest in TRS affairs.
For the TRS supremo, Srinivas became an eyesore after a flaming row the latter had with his daughter and the then Nizamabad MP K Kavitha who suspected that he was grooming his son D Arvind against her ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
It was reported that Srinivas, a powerful Munnuru Kapu leader, had played a major role in helping Arvind trounce Kavitha in the election, by turning Munnuru Kapu voters to his son’s side. After Kavitha lost the election to Lok Sabha from Nizambad in 2019, the differences between Srinivas and TRS had widened so much that on more than one occasion, KCR had said that he would not care whether Srinvias was in TRS or not. According to sources, Srinivas remained in TRS, though as a persona non - grata, as he would lose his membership of Rajya Sabha if he resigned from the party.
As his term is ending in June 2022, Srinivas has now warmed up to the Congress, though his son remains in the BJP. PCC chief A Revanth Reddy called on him a few months after taking over his assignment.
Srinivas’ other son and former Nizamabad Mayor D Sanjay, who was in TRS, left the party after his father’s relations with KCR soured. He has so far not yet joined any party. Srinivas is a veteran politician with almost four decades-long innings in public life. He served as a minister and was president of the erstwhile APCC twice.