A day after quitting Telugu Desam Party (TDP) formally, former minister A. Uma Madhava Reddy, her son A. Sandeep Reddy and a large number of their followers joined the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) in the presence of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, here on Thursday.
Terming the joining of Ms. Uma Madhava Reddy in TRS as coming home of a sister to her maiden family, Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao said she had not set any demands for joining the party.
He, however, assured her along with her son and their followers of due recognition at an appropriate time.
With Ms. Uma’s joining TRS, the strength of TDP in Telangana gets further depleted as a sizeable number of leaders had gone to Congress along with A. Revanth Reddy last month.
Her joining TRS strengthens the ruling party in Bhuvanagiri constituency and elsewhere in the erstwhile Nalgonda district as late Madhava Reddy and his family have followers.
Sitting TRS legislators from the constituency P. Shekhar Reddy was also present on the occasion along with several other ruling party leaders. Mr. Sandeep Reddy, who held the post of TDP president of Yadadri-Bhuvanagiri district till the other day, along with his mother and followers were earlier, given primary membership of TRS by Energy Minister G. Jagadish Reddy, who is also a party functionary. Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao welcomed them into the TRS by offering the customary party scarves. The Chief Minister recollected that he and late Madhava Reddy were closely associated in TDP and got elected as MLAs for the first time in 1985.
Together, they had fought for release of funds for development of Telangana region when in TDP and had also opposed the increase in power charges by the N. Chandrababu Naidu Government in year 2000 before breaking out of the party to take up the struggle for statehood by forming the TRS. The Chief Minister assured them of striving to take the IT industry to Bhuvanagiri district, bring Kaleshwaram project water to irrigate the lands and develop Yadadri as a major spiritual and pilgrimage centre in the country.
Meanwhile, the ruling TRS is also set to suspend sitting MLC R. Bhupathi Reddy from Nizamabad district for his anti-party activities.
According to the party sources, he was in touch with the Congress leadership for switching over and had failed to mend his ways with regard to party affairs in Nizamabad Rural constituency.
