The Telugu Desam Party (TDP), which is in upbeat mood with a flood of migrations of leaders from rival parties, received further boost on Saturday, with former Congress MLA of Puthalapattu (SC) constituency, P. Ravi, joining the party, along with his supporters in the presence of party supremo N. Chandrababu Naidu in Hyderabad.
Speaking to The Hindu , Dr. Ravi, “the leadership of Chandrababu Naidu is the need of the hour.”
He said that Mr Naidu had rich political experience spread over four decades. “I believe his leadership will do wonders for Telugu people in rebuilding the State. YSR Congress is not my option as the Samaikhyandra movement is a gone thing. I was not given any assurance of the MLA ticket from Puthalapattu, but I am ready to work as a grassroot level TDP worker,” he said.
Dr. Ravi, who made his political debut with the support of Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy in 2009 won as the Congress MLA. After the formation of YSR Congress in February 2011, Ravi tilted towards it in September the same year, and travelled with it for over four months, after tendering his resignation over inclusion of YSR name in the FIR of the CBI. Later, he created a flutter by absconding from the voting at the no-trust move against Kiran Kumar Reddy government in 2012. Soon, coming back into the fold of the Congress, he defended his move in the name of developing his constituency.
In recent months, with the Congress cadres slipping into hibernation and most of his supporters deserting him in the aftermath of the Samaikhyandra movement, Dr. Ravi became a loner, and there was a wide speculation that he might join Kiran Kumar Reddy’s Jai Samaikhyandra Party, but it did not happen.
Dr. Ravi is known as the follower of former Minister and present TDP leader Galla Aruna Kumari.
