Two members of the YSRCP party, Mopidevi Venkataramana and Beeda Mastan Rao, have resigned from the Rajya Sabha.
They met with the Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairman and submitted their resignations. The two leaders have also decided to leave the YSRCP and join the Telugu Desam Party (TDP). They want to work under the experienced leader and Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu to contribute to the state’s development.
The TDP may re-nominate Mastan Rao to the Rajya Sabha, while Mopidevi Venkata Ramana has agreed to join the TDP without any conditions. The TDP currently has no representation in the Rajya Sabha, and the by-elections caused by these resignations will allow the TDP to re-enter the upper house. The TDP has a strong presence in the state assembly, with 135 seats, and its allies, the Janasena and the BJP, have 21 and 8 seats, respectively.
Mopidevi had previously served as a minister in the cabinets of Jagan Mohan Reddy and his father YS Rajasekhara Reddy. Mopidevi served as the Minister for Excise and Prohibition until June 2020, when Jagan Mohan Reddy removed him from the Cabinet and appointed him to the Rajya Sabha.
In the recent elections, Mopidevi’s request for a YSRCP ticket for his son in the Repalle Assembly constituency was denied. Mastan Rao left the TDP to join the YSRCP in 2019, shortly after the YSRCP came to power. In 2022, Jagan Mohan Reddy rewarded Mastan Rao with a Rajya Sabha seat. Mastan Rao was previously elected as an MLA on a TDP ticket in 2009 but lost the election in 2014. He also contested unsuccessfully for the Nellore Lok Sabha constituency on a TDP ticket in 2019.
In response, TDP leader and MLA Ganta Srinivasa Rao described the YSRCP as a sinking ship, stating that his party had already made it clear that those who want to join the TDP should first resign from their posts.
Additionally, Pothula Suneetha resigned from the YSRCP and her membership in the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council. She is likely to join the TDP, the party she had left in 2020 to join the YSRCP. In January 2021, the YSRCP nominated Suneetha as their candidate, and she was elected unopposed under the MLA quota.
On Tuesday, Eluru Mayor Sheikh Noorjahan and her husband S.M.R. Pedababu left the YSRCP and joined the TDP. Over the past two months, several prominent leaders have defected from the YSRCP and joined the TDP.
-Sanyogita
