The ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) scored a political point over the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by attracting the latter’s ticket aspirant for the Nagarjuna Sagar by-poll, Kadari Anjaiah Yadav, into its fold.
Mr. Anjaiah Yadav joined the TRS in the presence of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Tuesday after he was denied ticket by the BJP that chose a tribal candidate. Mr. Anjaiah Yadav contested the 2014 elections on TDP ticket and secured over 27,000 votes. With the TDP weakening after Telangana formation, he joined the BJP in 2019, and was the front-runner for the ticket in the by-poll.
Huzurnagar MLA Saidi Reddy, and Deverakonda MLA Ravindra Naik were among the few who convinced Mr. Yadav to join the party assuring him a good political future. He was taken to the Chief Minister where he formally joined the party and assured that he would work for party candidate.
Mr. Yadav’s defection is being seen as a moral jolt as well to the BJP that was planning to lure dissident TRS leaders into its fold in the constituency after Mr. Bhagat’s name was announced. However, TRS made the first move thus impacting the BJP’s plans, if it still has any, on defections.
Sources said the BJP’s 2018 candidate Niveditha Reddy is also being lured by the TRS after she was denied the ticket. She had filed nomination a few days ago expecting the party nomination. It is said she is severely disappointed with the BJP leadership despite her work for strengthening the party in the constituency over the last two years.
Her husband Sridhar Reddy is the party president of the combined Nalgonda district. Ms. Reddy is apparently sulking over the denial despite the fact that she contested in 2018 when the party had no hopes there and since has been investing time and financial resources to strengthen the party.
The TRS has been focussing on luring the opposition leaders ever since the by-poll notification was announced. The MLAs have been campaigning in the constituency meeting influential leaders from village to constituency level. Some Congress leaders have already joined the party while several refused to do despite the best efforts of the MLAs.
