Fourth TDP MLA switches over to ruling YSRCP; party strength reduced to 19 MLAs

The Opposition Telugu Desam Party has been functionally reduced to 19 MLAs as another legislator switched loyalties to the ruling YSRCP in Andhra Pradesh.

On Saturday, Vishakapatnam (South) MLA Vasupalli Ganesh Kumar became the fourth TDP MLA to declare his allegiance to Chief Minister and YSRCP President Jaganmohan Reddy.

However, Kumar, like the three MLAs before him - Karanam Balarama Krishna Murthy (Chirala), Maddali Giridhara Rao (Guntur West), and Vallabhaneni Vamsi (Gannavaram) – has not formally joined the YSRCP in an apparent move to avoid disqualification under the anti-defection law.

Vasupalli met the CM at his camp office in Tadepalli, taking along his sons Saket and Surya. The two were welcomed into the party by Reddy with a YSRCP scarf.

In a similar spectacle in March, Karanam, a senior TDP leader, met Reddy with his son Venkatesh who accepted the YSRCP scarf from Reddy.

Vallabhaneni, the first TDP MLA to jump ship and engage in political accusations on his former party and its chief Chandrababu Naidu, accompanied the defectors in both events.

After his suspension from the TDP last year, Vallabhaneni continued as an unattached member in the state assembly, much to the chagrin of his ex-boss Naidu.

In the April 2019 elections, the YSRCP came to power with a resounding majority, claiming 151 out of the 175 assembly seats. The Telugu Desam Party got 23 MLAs while the JanaSena Party could manage one seat.

Though officially continuing as TDP legislators, these four MLAs have thus brought down the effective strength of the principal Opposition to 19.

The lone JanaSena MLA Rapaka Vara Prasad has also been seen in the YSRCP proximity, going against the diktats of the party chief Pawan Kalyan.

However, legislator defections are nothing new to Andhra Pradesh.

During the previous assembly term, former CM Naidu had welcomed 23 YSRCP legislators (out of 67), even making four of them ministers in his cabinet.

After becoming the CM in May 2019, Reddy had asserted that the Opposition legislators willing to join him should resign first. Analysts then saw this statement as paving a welcome shift from the defections trend in the state.

After Vasupalli’s meeting with CM Reddy on Saturday, Vijayasai Reddy, YSRCP parliamentary party leader, said that “more such joinings are in the offing and that there would be no opposition party in AP.”

Besides the sitting legislators, several key TDP leaders - former ministers, legislators etc., have joined the YSRCP in the past 15 months