TDP’s Ex-MLA Ramesh Babu Joins YSRCP

AMARAVATI: Former Telugu Desam Party leader and ex-MLA from the north Andhra region Panchakarla Ramesh Babu has joined the ruling YSR Congress Party. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and YSRCP President YS Jagan Mohan Reddy formally inducted him in the party at the party office in Tadepalli on Friday. Rajya Sabha MP V Vijaysai Reddy and Tourism Minister Avanthi Srinivas, who also hails from the north Andhra region, were also present on this occasion.

Ramesh Babu had in the past served as an MLA twice from Yalamanchili and Pendurthi Assembly constituencies. He came out of the TDP in May this year after feeling suffocated and vexed with the party leadership’s rigid stand on the issue of decentralization of state’s development. Unhappy with this, he has often expressed outrage over TDP and its chief Chandrababu Naidu’s attempts to stall the process to make Visakhapatnam as the executive capital of the state.

‘CHANDRABABU PROVOKED US OVER THE CAPITAL ISSUE’

Speaking to the media after formally joining the YSRCP, Panchakarla Ramesh Babu launched an all-out attack on Chandrababu Naidu. He said that the TDP chief has been spewing venom on Uttharandhra (North Andhra region) and its people to further his vested interests in Amaravati. The former chief minister was only looking to safeguard his interests and that of the select few in his coterie.

“I quit the TDP five months back. Chandrababu Naidu provoked us to stage dharnas against the proposal to make Visakhapatnam as the executive capital. Not ready to sabotage the interests of our own region, we came out of the party. We have welcomed Chief Minister YS Jagan’s decision on decentralization of development, just as the people of the entire state did. The chief minister’s decision was based on a noble thought of ensuring balanced development of all the regions in the state.

The situation is such that many more TDP leaders could be heading to the YSRCP soon. We all have unequivocally conveyed our feeling that Chandrababu Naidu’s son Lokesh is unfit to be a leader. Naidu made his son a minister through the backdoor and gave him undue powers over the party. CM YS Jagan is implementing remarkable schemes for the welfare of all sections of the state. We are happy that the north Andhra region is once again seeing good tidings,” Ramesh Babu said