Hyderabad: A day after he met Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, state Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president L Ramana on Friday quit the party. In a letter to party president N Chandrababu Naidu, he tendered his resignation.
Ramana said that he has decided to join the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS).
In his letter, Ramana wrote that he took the decision in view of the changing political equations in the state, with an objective to reach out to more people and to be part of the progress of Telangana.
He thanked the party for supporting his political growth for 30 years now.
The latest blow comes after the Telugu Desam Legislature Party (TDPLP) was merged with the Telangana Rashtra Samithi Legislature Party (TRSLP) in April this year. Two MLAs, Machha Nageshwar Rao and Sandra Venkata Veeraiah, who had defected to the TRS, handed over a letter granting their assent to the merger to the assembly speaker.
Sources said earlier that he would be offered an MLC position. The former MLA from Jagital joining TRS is expected to bolster the ruling party ahead of the Huzurabad by-election.
Ramana, who is heading TDP since the state bifurcation in 2014, is one of the few leaders left in the TDP in Telangana. Many top TDP leaders have already defected to TRS during the last seven years. Ramana has served two times as MLA and once as MP. He had also served as a state minister of handlooms in erstwhile Andhra Pradesh between 1994 and 1996.