YSR Congress MLA joins BJP

Amaravati: YSR Congress Party’s MLA Velagapalli Varaprasad Rao joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday and he is likely to be fielded as the BJP candidate from Tirupati Lok Sabha constituency.

Velagapalli Varaprasad Rao, a member of the Andhra Pradesh Assembly from Gudur constituency and a former MP from Tirupati, joined the BJP in the presence of Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Anurag Thakur and BJP General Secretary Vinod Tawde at BJP headquarters in New Delhi.

As the YSR Congress denied the ticket to Varaprasad Rao for the forthcoming elections, he switched loyalties to BJP.

He was elected from Tirupati Lok Sabha seat on YSR Congress ticket in 2014. The party shifted him to Gudur Assembly constituency (reserved for Scheduled Caste) in 2019. He won the election with a majority of over 45,000 votes.

After joining the BJP, Varaprasad said that only Prime Minister Narendra Modi can take the country ahead on the path of development. He told media persons that he is happy to get an opportunity to work under the Prime Minister.

Varaprasad thanked the party for giving him another opportunity to serve the people of Tirupati. The BJP is likely to field him as its candidate for Tirupati Lok Sabha seat.

The BJP is contesting Assembly and Lok Sabha elections in Andhra Pradesh in alliance with the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Jana Sena. The party has been allotted eight Lok Sabha and 10 Assembly seats.

BJP had won Tirupati Lok Sabha seat in 1999 in alliance with the TDP.