Vijayawada: More people are leaving the ruling Telugu Desam to join the YSR Congress. Amalapuram Member of Parliament Pandula Ravindra resigned from the TD and joined the YSRC on Monday in the presence of party chief Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy. Earlier, MLAs Meda Mallikarjuan Reddy, Amanchi Krishna Mohan and Anakapalli MP, Avanthi Srinivas, had quit the TD and joined the YSRC.
It is learnt that Mr Ravindra Babu was denied the TD ticket to contest again from Amalapauram, which is why he joined the YSRC. He said, “I am happy to have joined the YSRC. It is like a homecoming for me. Chief Minister N. Chand-rababu Naidu has ditched the people of AP in the name of a special economic package after several flip-flops on Special Cate-gory Status. Ultimately, the state did not get anything from the Centre only because of Mr Naidu. The state will not prosper as long as Mr Naidu remains as the CM. He escaped from Hyderabad fearing the ‘vote for note’ case.”
“The YSRC is like an oasis in the desert. Naidu has an army for every caste and they are spreading false propaganda that I have joined the YSRC for not getting MP seat from TD,” he said.
Mr Ravindra claimed he joined the YSRC for the state’s benefit and said only Jagan Mohan Reddy had the capability to bring the Special Category Status for AP.
Mr Ravindra succeeded during the past five years in highlighting certain issues relating to his constituency and securing funds on a substantial scale for constituency development. But his supporters feel he was not given due respect by the party leadership or by the party seniors in the district and also at the state level. Despite opposition within the party, he fought against the ONGC and got justice for his constituency, sources say. Recently, when a radioactive device went missing from the ONGC base Complex at Rajahmundry, the Amalapuram MP buttonholed ONGC authorities till they recovered it, as it posed a serious hazard to the people in the district. In fact, the other representatives were not aware of the dangers of the radioactive device found missing from the base complex. He was also instrumental in the ONGC higher-ups initiating proceedings against the officials responsible.
