Former state TDP working President Revanth Reddy joined the Congress party on Tuesday, in the presence of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi. Revanth had resigned from the TDP membership and from the post of Kodangal MLA on Saturday.
Along with Revanth, 16 other former senior members of the TDP joined the Congress party. These include 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.
Senior Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president Uttam Kumar Reddy, along with senior members RC Khuntia and V Geetha Reddy were also present at the ceremony, which took place at Rahul Gandhi’s residence in New Delhi.
Speculation was rife that Revanth would be switching over to the Congress after his visit to Delhi earlier this month. 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.
Initially, Revanth had denied reports that he was moving to a new party. He had also claimed that the Reddys had lost political power in both the Telugu states following the bifurcation. However, in an interview to a Telugu channel, he was quick to add that labelling him a ‘Reddy leader’ was a tactic of his political adversaries.
Revanth was also the floor leader of the TDP in the Telangana state assembly, and had always been at the forefront fiercely attacking policies of the KCR government.
Senior political observer and journalist Telakapalli Ravi had earlier told TNM that Revanth’s shift to the Congress will be hard for the BJP.
"It would definitely be a matter of distaste to the BJP that Revanth, a leader with an ABVP background, didn't consider joining the BJP,” he said.