Jaggampet MLA and YSRC deputy leader in Assembly Jyothula Nehru has resigned from the party posts. He has written a letter to party president YS Jaganmohan Reddy to this effect Tuesday aftenoon. He is said to have informed Jagan that he was resigning from the party as he was not able to work as per the latter’s wishes. He requested the party president to accept the resignation.

Nehru’s original name is Jyothula Venkata Apparao. The resignation of Jyothula Nehru is another setback to YSR Congress as he is not only the deputy leader of the party in Assembly, but also a prominent Kapu leader. His resignation has come at a time when Jagan carefully building bridges with Kapu community by extending support to the Kapu fight for BC status led by Mudragada Padmanabham. Jagan’ strategy is certain to suffer a setback following Jyothula Nehru’s desertion from the party. The party has not fully recovered from the shock given by the eight MLAs, who quit the party and joined the TDP in the past one month. Jagan is still in the Naidu-condemnation mode for luring the MLAs with money and positions and is still dubbing Naidu as man without character and credibility. While Jagan has been trying hard to corner the defected and get them disqualified under anti-defection provisions, Jyothula Nehru dealt another blow to the party. The immediate provocation for his resignation from the party is the denial of the post of chairman , public accounts committee, for which Jagan chose a Reddy MLA from Kurnool district.

Nehru won from Jaggampet constituency for the third time in 2014 as YSR candidate. In the past he lost two elections, in 2004 as TDP candidate and in 2009 as PRP nominee. When PRP merged with Congress , Jyothula Venkata Apparao, chose to go with YSR Congress which fielded him as the party candidate in 2014.

A Kapu veteran, Jyothula Venkata Apparao is not new to TDP. He represented Jaggampet as TDP MLA in 1994 and 1999. He was East Godavari district TDP president when he left the party to join PRP in 2008.