Curtains for TDP in Telangana, lone MLA joins TRS
It is curtains for Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in Telangana after its lone MLA M. Nageshwar Rao joined the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi.
By Newsmeter Network Published on 8 April 2021 5:28 AM GMT
Hyderabad: It is curtains for Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in Telangana after its lone MLA M. Nageshwar Rao joined the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi.
The MLA from Aswaraopeta formally joined the party at Pragati Bhavan on Wednesday in presence of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao.
Another TDP MLA Sandra Venkata Veeraiah had quit and joined TRS much earlier.
Both Nageshwar Rao and Venkata Veeraiah later in the day met assembly speaker Pocharam Srinivasa Reddy and submitted a letter seeking a merger of TDP with the TRS.
Soon thereafter, assembly secretary V. Narasimha Chary issued a bulletin merging TDLP with TRSLP, thereby formally ending the presence of Telugu Desam Party in the Telangana Legislative Assembly.
Telugu Desam had won as many as 15 seats in elections held immediately after the bifurcation of united Andhra Pradesh and the formation of Telangana in 2014.
In 2018, only two of its candidates were elected MLAs from erstwhile Khammam district. Veeraiah, who is an accused in a note-for-vote case involving former TD leader and now Congress MP A. Revanth Reddy, joined the ruling TRS a year after getting elected from Sattupally in 2018. Apparently, under pressure from TDP national president N. Chandrababu Naidu, the Aswaraopeta MLA deferred his wish to join TRS till Wednesday.
Speaking to the media, Nageshwar Rao maintained that he joined TRS as he could not do justice with his people during the last two years. "As a ruling party MLA, I will help him develop his constituency in a better way," he added.
The TDP has no presence in the Legislative Council. With this, there is no representation to TDP in both Houses of the Legislature. It is an end for Telugu Party in Telangana which was formed in 1982 by NT Rama Rao.
