Anam Ramanarayana Reddy to join TDP in Amaravati next month

NELLORE: In a significant development, suspended YSRCP MLA from Venkatagiri Anam Ramanarayana Reddy on Saturday revealed that he would be joining the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), a party he quit before the 2019 elections, very soon.

Speaking to the media in Nellore, he said that he met TDP chief Nara Chandrababu Naidu at the latter’s residence in Hyderabad on Friday and expressed his desire to be associated once again with the TDP. Chandrababu Naidu, on this occasion, wholeheartedly welcomed him into the party, he informed.

Ramanarayana Reddy said that he would enter the TDP fold formally after extending his solidarity with Nara Lokesh, who will be entering Nellore district on June 12, 2023 as part of his Yuva Galam padayatra. “The date for my formal entry into the TDP has not yet been finalised as I intend to welcome Nara Lokesh into the district on June 12. After the Yuva Galam padayatra is completed in Nellore district, I will go to Amaravati, accompanied by all my followers and formally join the TDP at the party’s central office there,” he said.

According to sources close to the leader, he could be stepping into the TDP only next month.

Ramanarayana Reddy met TDP Chief N Chandrababu at the latter’s residence in Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad, on Friday night proving all the speculation, circulating on social media platforms for the last three months, right. During the one-hour-long meeting, the duo was said to have discussed the latest political developments in Nellore and Andhra Pradesh besides Nara Lokesh’s Yuva Galam padayatra. Besides this, Ramanarayana Reddy also expressed his interest to contest on a TDP ticket from Atmakur constituency in the upcoming Assembly elections, sources claimed.

The Yuvagalam Padayatra of Nara Lokesh, currently going on in Kadapa district, will enter Nellore district on June 12. Anam Ramanarayana Reddy has been making hectic preparations to accord a grand welcome to the Nara scion.

The senior leader, in his endeavour to switch sides to the opposition party, has been visiting several constituencies in Nellore district to seek his followers’ opinion on his latest political moves. A meeting with his followers was also held on Saturday to firm up his plans for his political future. Following this, Ramanarayana Reddy came before the media and announced his intention to join the TDP.

Ramnarayana Reddy is a senior leader in the politics of the erstwhile combined Nellore district. He won twice as MLA from Rapuru constituency. The TDP hopes that the inclusion of Ramanarayana Reddy, who has a decent vote bank in Venkatagiri and Atmakur Assembly constituencies, would boost its strength in the district.

Anam Ramanarayana Reddy was one of the four disgruntled MLAs that YSRCP had suspended after the MLC elections in the state a few months ago. Along with Kotamreddy Sridhar Reddy, Mekapati Chandra Sekhar Reddy – both also from Nellore – and Undavalli Sridevi in Guntur district, Ramanarayana Reddy was suspended from the ruling party on the allegations of cross-voting for the TDP candidate Panchumarthi Anuradha in the MLA quota MLC elections.

After being suspended from the YSRCP, Anam Rannarayana Reddy has upped his decibel levels in publicly targeting the YSRCP government and Chief Minister Y S Jaganmohan Reddy.

Mekapati Chandra Sekhar Reddy to welcome Nara Lokesh

Meanwhile, UDayagiri MLA Mekapati Chandra Sekhar Reddy, one of the four MLAs suspended by the YSRCP, is also moving closer overtly to the TDP, as is widely speculated. Accused of cross-voting for the TDP candidate in the MLC elections, Chandra Sekhar Reddy is planning to accord a grand welcome to Nara Lokesh when the latter enters Nellore district as part of his Yuva Galam padayatra.