VIJAYAWADA: In a sudden development ahead of the 2024 Assembly elections, two leaders of the YSRC have resigned from the party.
One of them was ‘gaint killer’ Mangalagiri MLA Alla Ramakrishna Reddy, who defeated Telugu Desam scion Nara Lokesh. The other was Devan Reddy, son of another gaint killer, Gajuwaka MLA Tippala Nagi Reddy who defeated Jana Sena chief K. Pawan Kalyan.
According to reliable sources, chief minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy is planning to field BC candidates in these constituencies. Hence, these leaders found there was no chance for them to get the tickets for the 2024 polls.
In a sudden response to these resignations, the YSRC appointed Ganji Chiranjeevi as the new incharge for Mangalagiri and Varikuti Ramachandra Rao for Gajuwaka on Monday.
MLA Ramakrishna Reddy cited personal reasons and submitted his resignation to P. Satyanarayana Reddy, Officer on Special Duty (OSD) to Andhra Pradesh assembly speaker on Monday.
Addressing the media, Ramakrishna Reddy thanked the people of Mangalagiri for electing him twice. He said he served them with dedication. “Though painful, it was necessary for me to take this harsh decision. The resignation was submitted to the speaker’s OSD.”
Ramakrishna Reddy thanked the Chief Minister for giving him an opportunity to contest twice. He recalled that he had been active in the Congress party since the time of Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy. Although he did not get the Congress ticket in the 2004 and 2009 elections, he remained loyal to YSR and the party. “Following the death of YSR, when Jagan Mohan Reddy floated YSRC, I joined the party at the invitation of the latter,” he said.
Ramakrishna Reddy said he would disclose his future course of action very soon. According to the reports, Ramakrishna Reddy’s resignation was not unexpected. He was apparently not happy with the political developments in the recent past, and the “indifferent response” from the officials to issues relating to his constituency further perturbed him.
He was inactive in the mass contact programmes including Gadapa Gadapaku in his constituency but was unhappy over the group politics against him in Mangalagiri constituency.
Ramakrishna Reddy got elected as MLA first in 2014 and again in 2019. He defeated Ganji Chiranjeevi, the Telugu Desam candidate in 2014 who hailed from the dominant weaver community, with a narrow margin of nine votes.
In 2019, TD general secretary Nara Lokesh entered the fray from Managalgiri and lost the election by a margin of more than 9,000 votes to Ramakrishna Reddy. It was widely speculated that he would be inducted into the cabinet by Jagan Reddy. He missed the berth due to caste equations.
The chief minister invited Chiranjeevi to the party fold on August 29 and was made in-charge of the constituency. This changed the political equations there.
Ramakrishna Reddy was very vocal against TD chief Nara Chandrababu Naidu setting up his residence in Undavalli. He had lodged a complaint alleging a quid pro quo between Naidu and Lingamaneni Ramesh, the owner of the house.
Earlier, he filed petitions in court seeking inclusion of Naidu in the vote for note case in Telangana and also filed complaints about scams and illegalities in Amaravati lands under which the AP CID is conducting investigations.
