Andhra cabinet row: Former home minister Mekathoti Sucharitha quits as MLA in protest

Amaravati: Disappointed over not being included in the cabinet, former home minister Mekathoti Sucharitha resigned as an MLA. Her resignation came a few hours after the new Andhra Pradesh cabinet was announced.

Sucharitha handed over the resignation letter to Rajya Sabha member Mopidevi Venkata Ramana who visited her residence.

Speaking to the media, Sucharitha's daughter Rishika said: "My mother has resigned as MLA. She handed over the resignation letter to Rajya Sabha member Mopidevi. However, she has not resigned from the YSRCP membership".

Soon after, followers of Sucharitha staged a protest at Guntur and raised slogans against chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy.

Sucharita was elected as an MLA from the Prathipadu segment for the first time in 2009 on a Congress ticket. She was inducted into the Congress by the late Dr. Y S Rajashekara Reddy after he spotted her during his padayatra in 2003.

Sucharita rose from the ranks. In 2006, she won the Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituencies (ZPTC) election from Phirangipuram in Guntur as a Congress candidate. She served for two years as a ZPTC member. In the 2019 assembly elections, she defeated two former ministers D Manikya Vara Prasad of the TDP and former TDP minister Ravela Kishore Babu.