TDP leader Mandava to join TRS soon

Hyderabad: Mandava Venkateshwara Rao, one of the strong leaders in the Telugu Desam Party State unit, would be soon joining the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS).

Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao met the senior TDP leader and former Minister Mandava Venkateshwara Rao at his residence in Jubilee Hills on Friday. Both leaders discussed the present political situation in the State especially after the TDP is on the verge of extinction in Telangana.

The TRS chief invited Venkateshwara Rao to join the TRS and the party leaders said that he would soon be joining the party.Rao is one among the leaders who had close relations with K Chandrashekar Rao when they were in TDP. The other leaders include Tummala Nageswara Rao and Bojjala Gopalakrishna Reddy.

Venkateshwara Rao has following in Nizamabad district as he was one of the main TDP leader and has also served as a Minister. The TRS leadership believes that there will be some impact of Venkateshwara on elections if he decides to join the TRS. Sources said that the aim of the party is to make sure the TDP cadre supports TRS candidate K Kavitha in Nizamabad.

Nizamabad Lok Sabha has been the talking point as there are about 185 candidates in the electoral fray from this segment. Most of them are farmers including Red Jowar and Turmeric, who are demanding good MSP for their crops.

Apart from this, the incumbent Member of Parliament is facing competition from her opponents and the party chief does not want to take chances hence the Chief Minister went to the residence of Mandava, sources said. Sources said that when K Chandrashekar Rao invited Venkateshwara Rao, he has also agreed to join the TRS.

The Telugu Desam Party is not contesting the elections in Telangana. Mandava has been away from public life and had not contested the previous election in 2014.

He was reluctant to contest even in 2009 but TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu made sure he contested but he had to face defeat. Since then he is not active in politics. Along with the Chief Minister, MP J Santosh Kumar, MLAs Maganti Gopinath, Arikepudi Gandhi and P Ajay Kumar were also present.