In a setback to the YSR Congress party, Kurnool MP Butta Renuka has decided to call it a day in the Opposition party and is joining the Telugu Desam Party in the presence of Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu in Vijayawada on Tuesday.
YSRCP Central Committee member and former MLA Kothakota Prakash Reddy is also joining the TDP along with her, according to informed sources. Speculation was rife that Ms. Renuka would join the ruling party ever since she called on Panchayat Raj Minister and TDP State general secretary Nara Lokesh at the State guest house in Kurnool in July. She initially refuted media reports that she would join the TDP but did not respond to such reports of late.
A native of the Yemmiganur constituency in Kurnool district, Ms. Renuka made her political entry in 2014 and entered the 16th Lok Sabha.
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Soon after the outcome, her husband Butta Neelakantham, Chairman and Managing Director of Butta Group, joined the TDP but stayed away from the ruling party programmes.
Said to be one of the richest Parliamentarians in the 16th Lok Sabha, the 46-year-old Renuka is keen on re-contesting the seat but was said to have been asked by the YSRC leadership to contest for the Assembly from Yemmiganur segment. It is said to be one of the factors leading to her decision to quit the YSRCP.