Several leaders from Telangana, including former Minister and five-term MLA from Nagarkurnool Nagam Janardhan Reddy, on Wednesday joined the Congress in presence of party President Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi.
Telangana Congress chief Uttam Kumar Reddy and AICC in-charge of Telangana Ram Chandra Khuntia were also present on the occasion.
Reddy began his political career in 1984 and he was elected five times from Nagarkurnool Assembly constituency as a TDP MLA in Mahbubnagar district. He floated his own party, Telangana Nagara Samithi, which he later merged into the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He had contested unsuccessfully on a BJP ticket during the 2014 elections.
He left the BJP earlier this year. Reddy has also been a Minister in the past serving in the Andhra Pradesh cabinet.
In another prominent development, Naga Surya, the son of Telugu balladeer and Maoist sympathiser, Gaddar, also joined Congress in the presence of Rahul Gandhi.
Speaking to reporters, Naga Surya said that he had his father’s blessings and he would contest whichever seat the party offered him, during the upcoming elections in 2019.
Among other prominent names joining the party was G. Surya Kiran.
Nagam Janardhan Reddy’s shift to the Congress comes after former state TDP working President Revanth Reddy joined the Congress party in October last year.
Revanth had resigned from the TDP membership and from the post of Kodangal MLA.
Along with Revanth, 16 other former senior members of the TDP joined the Congress party at the time. These included Boda Janardhan, former MLA Chinthakunta Vijaya Ramana Rao, Vaddepalli Subhash Reddy, ex-MLA Seethakka, Vempally Narendar Reddy and Rajaram Yadav. Rajaram Yadav was a prominent student leader in Osmania University, before he joined TDP in 2013.
Revanth was reportedly miffed with the TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu for exploring the possibility of a tie-up with TRS for the 2019 general elections.
IANS inputs