Felt insulted by Chandrababu, Vijayawada MP Kesineni Nani to quit TDP, his MP post

VIJAYAWADA: Kesineni Srinivas popular as Nani will be resigning from the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and also his Lok Sabha membership. Nani was elected on behalf of the TDP from Vijayawada in two consecutive elections in 2014, and 2019.

He, however, announced though social media platform ‘X’ in the wee hours of Saturday that he decided to resign from the TDP as its supremo N Chandrababu Naidu felt that his services were no longer needed for the party. He had also said that it wasn’t right on his part to continue in the party. Soon he would go to Delhi and resign from the Lok Sabha membership. Soon, he would tender his resignation from the TDP also.

The TDP has been encouraging Nani’s younger brother Chinni and is egging him against his brother. The party is overtly allowing Chinni to portray himself as the next contestant for the Vijayawada MP seat.

Nani’s differences with the party leadership are not new. But things reached a flash point in the recent past, especially when he had been to Tiruvuru to oversee the arrangements for a party meeting. The two groups led by him and his brother came to blows unveiling an ugly facet of the internal squabble within the TDP.

The sitting Vijayawada MP said that he was informed by the party that he would not be fielded from the seat for the third time from Vijayawada seat. Senior party leaders Alapati Rajendra Prasad, Nettem Raghuram, and Konakalla Narayan Rao were said to have met him. They informed TDP chief Nara Chandrababu Naidu’s decision to pick a new face for the important seat in coastal Andhra Pradesh. The party also asked him to stay away from party-related work in the constituency.

Party sources said that the recent clash between Nani’s supporters and supporters of his brother Kesineni Sivanath (Chinni) might have triggered the decision. The clash occurred while Nani was supervising the arrangements for the January 7, 2024, public meeting of Chandrababu Naidu in Turuvuru. Nani and his brother were not on good terms as all along Nani suspected that Sivanath was trying to get a nomination from the TDP for the Vijayawada seat.

However, keen on contesting as an MP for the third time Nani told the media that he would contest for the third time even as an independent. “Party can ask me not to contest but it can’t ask me to stay away from public meetings and gatherings as an MP,” a firm Nani said.

Nani dropped enough indications that he might shift to YSRCP or BJP after quitting TDP. While the YSRCP made an offer to him a long time back, Nani was also close to Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, because he owned a transport company ‘Kesineni Travel’ which closed to due mounting losses. However, the arrest of Chandrababu Naidu and his release made Nani return to active party work.