Severing his nearly four decade-long association with the Congress, former Minister Kanna Lakshminarayana formally joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the presence of its State president and Visakhapatnam MP K. Haribabu in Vijayawada on Wednesday.
A five-time MLA, Mr. Lakshminarayana served as a Minister in the Cabinets of late YS Rajasekhara Reddy, K. Rosaiah and N. Kiran Kumar Reddy. He was among few senior Ministers whose names made rounds for the Chief Minister’s post after N. Kiran Kumar Reddy went against the party diktat on separate Telangana.
While taking membership of BJP from Mr. Haribabu at the State party office, Mr. Lakshminarayana said he did not hanker for power at any point of time in his political career. He said he was offered the post of the PCC president, but refused the post as he was by then convinced that the Congress party was doomed due to its arbitrary decision to divide the State.
Mr. Lakshminarayana said he was in touch with some more leaders of the Congress party in Guntur district who expressed their intent to join BJP and that he would strive for strengthening of the party by expanding its reach to the masses.
Former Mayor of Guntur and Mr. Lakshminarayana’s son, Kanna Nagaraju, and Guntur Cooperative Urban Bank Limited Chairman Kothamasu Srinivasa Rao were among those who joined BJP.
