We were forced to change parties

Amaravati: Daggubati Purandeswari, daughter of TDP founder N T Rama Rao revealed that N Chandrababu Naidu did not allow her family to come into the party. She said that this had forced them to join earlier Congress, later in BJP and now her husband and son joining YSRCP.  She said she would remain in BJP. 

Purandareswari’s revelation comes in a message in a WhatsApp group in the wake of severe criticism from TDP supporters as well as some BJP activists over her husband and son joining YSRCP. In a way defending their political exodus,  she explained that she had joined in other political parties like Congress and BJP instead of continuing in the TDP for their political existence but will continue the legacy of her father NTR.. 

The BJP Legal Cell leader, Rajesh, urged her to explain at least a single good reason for her joining BJP, Congress and now allowing her son to join YSRCP.  “Does anyone know that entry into TDP was denied when DVR (Daggubati Venkateswara Rao) wanted to come back? Do you know that the diktat from TDP supremo to BJP was to not give me the ticket in 2014 elections?”, she said in a detailed explanation to the criticism from within the party members.

“If TDP supremo did not want us in the party, then should we forget public life? Please do not forget that DVR has his cadre to protect. My entry was unplanned and circumstantial,” she maintained. 

On Nandamuri Suhasini’s candidature in Kukatapally during the recent Telangana Assembly elections and the later developments, she said, “My love for my family goes beyond politics.” At this juncture, the BJP leader Rajesh questioned her that will she support candidature of her son from YSRCP and whether would she campaign for him in the elections, despite being as a Mahila Morcha leader of BJP. 

Rajesh criticised that Purandeswari campaigned against Suhasini in Kukatpally but now is claiming that she would give priority to the family when the issue was her son. She also reacted to the US citizenship of her son, who was born and brought up in that country and who now applied for Indian citizenship to contest in the ensuing general elections. She said that it (the US citizenship) happened in some special circumstances.