TDP has received yet another blow when former union minister and respected Kapu community leader Ummareddy Venkateswarlu has joined the YSR Congress party here on Tuesday.
Ummareddy who met Y S Jaganmohan Reddy in the Chanchalguda jail, drove to his Lotus Pond residence and joined the YSR Congress, in the presence of the party’s honorary president Y S Vijayamma.
Speaking to the media later, he said he was pained that the Congress and the TDP had colluded just to harass Jagan. Stating that N T Rama Rao has started the TDP with lofty ideals and an anti-Congress stance, Ummareddy lamented that the present leadership was giving a go by to all those ideals.
Ummareddy has said he was confident that welfare schemes would be effectively implemented only under Jagan.
SHOCK TO CONGRESS ALSO
Congress party has also received shock on Tuesday. The party’s senior leader Vaddepalli Narasiha Rao has also met Jagan during Mulakhat time on Tuesday.
He is also likely to join the YSR Congress. It is learnt that Ummareddy’s followers were making arrangements for organizing a massive public meeting in Bapatla as a show of strength and solidarity.
Ummareddy, who was politburo member of the TDP Lok Sabha seat in 2009 and the Rajya Sabha seat later. As Naidu has chosen to ignore him, he has distanced himself to the party since quite some time. Though some district leaders made attempts to make Ummareddy stay back in the party, they did not succeed. The senior leader was hurt that the party chief Chandra Babu Naidu has not even called him to know his grievance.
What package Naidu has received when he joined TDP?
Speaking to the media after meeting Jagan at the jail, Ummareddy has expressed anger at the TDP leaders for alleging that he has joined the YSRCP accepting packages, though the party honored him and made him union minister.
Stating that the party chief has also defected from Congress, he has questioned what package he has taken then. Stating that it was not his mentality to accept packages, he said more than anything, he valued self-respect. He told the media that he told Jagan that he was joining the party unconditionally. He has reminded that he had remained loyal to TDP even when his close friend Chiranjeevi has started PRP and invited him to join his party.
When asked if he did no feel what he was doing now was wrong, as he was part of the TDP leaders who had distributed Raja of Corruption book in Delhi when he was in the party, Ummareddy has said though he was in Delhi, he was not part of the TDP team which distributed the book. On allegations against Jagan, the former union minister has said that these were mere allegations and nothing could be concluded until courts find him guilty. (NSS)