A sitting TDP MLA in Andhra Pradesh has decided to join hands with chief opposition party YSRCP. Chirala legislator Amanchi Krishna Mohan met YSRCP President YS Jaganmohan Reddy on Wednesday and made his decision to quit the ruling party official.
Amanchi said that he would join the YSRCP soon after weeks of political ambiguity and negotiations. He alleged that he was leaving the TDP as ‘unrelated’ people were intervening in the activities in Chirala.
In his resignation letter to Andhra Chief Minister and TDP President Chandrababu Naidu, Amanchi said, "I'm resigning from the party to oppose the intervention of certain people into government programmes, even though they're nowhere related to the party or the government.”
After meeting with Jagan, the Chirala MLA lashed out at Naidu’s stand on issues like Special Category Status (SCS).
Talking about the Andhra Pradesh government’s move to shift offices to the upcoming capital of Amaravati from Hyderabad after the state’s bifurcation in 2014, he said, "He (Naidu) has come here (Amaravati) within two years though we have the administrative right to continue there (Hyderabad) for 10 years for his personal gain."
Alleging that there was no progress in the construction of the capital, he claimed that Naidu was 'managing the media'.
“He came from a humble background but now he has collapsed into castiesm and nepotism which is dangerous," the legislator added.
Amanchi is the second sitting MLA to desert the TDP, with just months to go for simultaneous Assembly and Lok Sabha polls in the state, after former Minister Ravela Kishore Babau quit the ruling party last year, to join Pawan Kalyan's Jana Sena, alleging casteism and discrimination in the TDP.
Meanwhile, several TDP workers in Chirala celebrated Amanchi's decision to leave the party and took out a rally in the town with TDP flags. TDP MLCs Karnam Balram and P Sunitha will be heading a TDP cadre meet in Chirala soon, in order to oversee the future course of action.
Amanchi who claims to be a self-made leader first won as an MLA in 2009 on a Congress ticket.. In 2014 after winning on a Navodayam Party ticket, he shifted his loyalties to the ruling TDP.
Amanchi is known to be a loyalist to former united Andhra Pradesh K Rosaiah and considers the latter to be his mentor. However, his political career has not been without controversy.
In 2017, Amanchi Krishna Mohan’s brother, Amanchi Swamulu, and his associates, chased down and thrashed a journalist on the streets of Chirala. The journalist was punched, kicked and beaten with a stick by a group of people in the middle of the street in broad daylight. The assault eventually stopped after a policeman intervened.
The journalist who had been assaulted, M Nagarjuna Reddy was a senior journalist who had earlier published a report on the financial dealings of Krishna Mohan and Swamulu.
The police booked several people in the case including Swamulu, but Amanchi Krishna had defended his brother at the time, claiming that it was an ‘emotional reaction’. Both brothers met Jagan together on Wednesday and are expected to join the YSRCP soon.