Congress Lok Sabha member from Visakhapatnam and former Union minister Daggubati Purandeswari is expected to formally announce her joining the BJP on Friday night after her meeting with the saffron party’s top brass.
Daughter of TDP founder and former chief minister of AP late N .T. Rama Rao, Purandeswari will be meeting BJP strongman L. K.Advani and later party president Rajnath Singh and others. Later in the evening, she is expected to formally announce her joining the saffron brigade at a media conference.
`It may be mentioned here that Purandeswari is one among the nine Union ministers from the Seemandhra region of AP, who had vainly agitated for keeping the State united. However, with the AP Reorganization Bills passed in Parliament, she quit both her ministership and membership of the Congress party, though they were yet to be accepted.
It is pertinent to note here that there was intense competition between her and another senior Congress leader T. Subbarami Reddy for party ticket to contest the 2014 elections from Vizag LS Constituency. However, to create a smooth passage for re-nominating her as Congress nominee from the constituency, for which TSR had staked claim, the Congress High Command had made him the Rajya Sabha member.
Though Purandeswari was the obvious choice of Congress High Command as party nominee for Vizag seat, she had her own doubts about winning in the 2014 elections in the wake of the State bifurcation issue. Thus, in a diligent move, she decided to jump the fence and join the BJP for greener pastures. As a matter of fact, the BJP, which is trying to gain a foothold in AP, especially in the Seemandhra region, found a readymade candidate in Purandeswari.
As a matter of fact, her husband Dr Daggubati Venkateshwar Rao, representing as Congress MLA from Parchur constituency in Prakasam district of the State, who too had quit his MLA post and Congress membership, was also expected to join the BJP along with his spouse. However, after a meeting with his close associates, he had declared that he was quitting politics. In fact, he had a brief stint earlier with the BJP after quitting TDP and later jumped into Congress bandwagon. For the BJP, Purandeswari might be definitely a big catch on the eve of the 2014 elections. However, it would be a Herculean task for her to retain her parliamentary seat. (NSS)
