Ending weeks of speculation and his more than three-decade-old association with the Telugu Desam Party, the senior TDP leader and former Minister Tummala Nageswara Rao resigned from the party on Saturday.
He is likely to join the ruling Telangana Rastra Samithi along with his supporters in the presence of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao in Hyderabad on September 5.
Big blow to TDP
The TDP suffered a major setback in the district, considered its traditional bastion, as the party district president Kondabala Koteswara Rao, ZP chairperson G Kavitha, DCCB chairman M Vijay Babu, MLC B Lakshminarayana and others quit the party.
Mr Nageswara Rao and the remaining leaders reportedly sent their resignation letters to the TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu on Saturday afternoon after meeting at the former’s residence here.
Sources said that Mr Rao conveyed his decision to quit the party without specifying any particular reason for his resignation in his “one-sentence” resignation letter addressed to Mr Naidu.
Sources close to Mr Rao attributed his decision to his “differences” with the former MP Nama Nageswara Rao.
Supporters blame rival group
Mr Tummala Nageswara Rao’s supporters blamed his rival group for his defeat in the recent Assembly elections from Khammam constituency.
Mr Rao has been keeping aloof from the party activities in the aftermath of the general elections.
Internal bickering proved costly for the TDP in the general elections as it managed to win only one Assembly seat (Sattupalli) of the total 10 seats in the district. Tummala Nageswara Rao and Nama Nageswara Rao lost their sitting MLA and MP seats, respectively.
Mr Tummala Nageswara Rao, a four-time MLA, served as Cabinet Minister thrice during the successive TDP governments in the past.
Mr Rao’s resignation fuelled speculation that he would be made an MLC by the TRS leadership and inducted into the State Cabinet soon.
