The steady wave of deflections from TDP to YSRCP seems to be unabated. After the recent exit of senior TDP leaders, including party MLC Dokka Manikya Varaprasad, Kadapa strongman Satish Reddy and Balakrishna’s close friend Kadiri Babu Rao to the ruling party in Andhra Pradesh, now it is the turn of TDP MLC K E Prabkhar.
Ahead of civic body elections, Kurnool TDP MLC and former chairman of the State Irrigation Development Corporation, has quit the party. Prabhakar has been miffed with the party leadership over allotment of tickets to candidates in Kurnool for the upcoming elections. Prabhakar, who quit the party on Friday, requested the party leadership to accept his resignation.
Kamabalapadu Ediga Prabhakar is the younger brother of K E Krishna Murthy, former deputy chief Minister (Revenue) of Andhra Pradesh, while K E Prathap who is Dhone TDP in-charge is the third brother. Although K E Prabhakar did not disclose his future political plans, the obvious choice for K E Prabhakar seems to be Jagan’s party. Meanwhile, K E Krishna Murthy said his brother did not consult with him regarding his move to quit the TDP as it was his personal decision and that he was free to join any party he feels good for his political career.
The KE family, who hail from Kamabalapadu in Kurnool, are traditional rivals to the Kotla family. The political rivalry runs deep between the Kotla and KE families, which simmered during the times of Vijayabhaskar Reddy and KE Madanna, Krishnamurthy’s father when both were in the Congress. KE Madanna’s son K E Krishnamurthy joined the TDP after a fallout with Vijayabhaskar Reddy over the Dhone assembly ticket. When former chief minister Kotla Vijayabhaskar Reddy’s son Suryaprakash Reddy joined the TDP, it was thought the families would bury the old hatchet.
K E Prabahakar joins the long list of party leaders who quit TDP recently, including former minister and two-time MLA Dokka Manikya Varaprasad Rao who resigned from the primary membership of the TDP and joined the YSRCP in the presence of its president and Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy at his camp office.
Dokka’s exit was followed by TDP leader and Kadapa’s strongman Satish Reddy, who challenged the supremacy of Y S Rajasekhara Reddy in Pulivendula, quit the party expressing his displeasure over N Chandrababu Naidu’s leadership. In Prakasam, former MLA Kadiri Babu Rao quit the TDP and met Jagan Mohan Reddy to join his party. Kadiri Babu Rao, a close associate of Nandamuri Balakrishna and a Kapu strongman in Prakasam, was upset with the TDP high command for allotting the Kanigiri ticket he won in 2014 elections to former Congress leader Ugra Narasimha Reddy and shifted him to Darshi in 2019 elections. Prakasam strongman Karanam Balaram too decided to quit the TDP for admitting his arch rival Gottipatti Ravikumar into party fold.
