india

Updated: Dec 16, 2018 21:41 IST

Two TDP leaders are likely to join Jagan Mohan Reddy’s YSR Congress in a blow to the Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu ahead of the 2019 elections to the state assembly and Lok Sabha.

Faced with the poor prospects of securing a TDP ticket for his native Giddaluru assembly constituency in Prakasam district, former TDP MLA Anna Rambabu on Sunday announced his decision to join the Yuvajana Sramika Rytu Congress (YSRC) in the presence of Jagan in the last week of December.

He told the media about his decision after meeting the former YSR Congress MLA Balineni Srinivasulu Reddy in Ongole.

Rambabu’s decision comes a fortnight after two prominent Muslim leaders from Rayalaseema region — Mahammod Iqbal from Pileru in Chittoor district and Abdul Ghani from Nandamuri Balakrishna’s Hindupur in Ananthapur district — quit the TDP and joined YSRC.

When Rambabu, a Vysya leader, lost to YSRC’s M Ashok Reddy in 2014, the TDP leadership had inducted Reddy, reducing Rambabu’s prospects for re-nomination.

Sources in the YSR Congress said Jaganmohan has promised Rambabu a ticket from Giddaluru. He went to the united Andhra Pradesh legislative assembly from Giddaluru from film star’s Chiranjeevi then-Praja Rajyam Party in 2009.

Another TDP leader, Madduluri Malakondaiah Yadav, who unsuccessfully contested from Ongole Lok Sabha seat in 2014 on its ticket, is actively taking part in Jaganmohan Reddy’s padayatra.

Sources in the YSR Congress said Yadav, who has kept himself away from active politics after his defeat, is likely to be nominated by YSR Congress from Cheerala where the Yadavas with 30,000 votes will play a decisive role.

YSR Congress’s official spokesperson Vasireddy Padma sought to link the TDP defections to the failure of Mahakootami in the Telangana assembly elections, denting the “image” of TDP leader N Chandrababu Naidu.

“We expect large scale migrations from the TDP in the next two months,” she said.

Naidu, who admitted 23 lawmakers of the YSR Congress into his party and inducted four of them in his cabinet in April 2017, is obligated to accommodate of them in the ticket distribution in 2019, leaving the party loyalists high and dry.

From Prakasam district, Naidu inducted three YSR Congress MLAs into TDP. YSR Congress MP YV Subba Reddy, also a close relative of Jaganmohan Reddy, comes from Ongole in Prakasam district which has a considerable base for the opposition party.

“We will obviously have to go all out to contain Jagan’s influence in Prakasam district by putting all our resources in place in the coming election,” said a senior TDP leader.

Disenchantment will give scope for an exodus in the TDP in the run up to the next elections as the delimitation of assembly segments failed to take off, observed G Vikram, a political analyst.

Had the NDA government conceded Naidu’s request for the delimitation move, the number of assembly constituencies in the successor state of Andhra Pradesh would have gone up to 225 from 175, giving much elbow room for him to keep most of the ticket seekers in good humour.

Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao fielded almost all the 26 defectors of TDP, Congress and the other parties from his TRS and ensured their victory in the 2018 elections.