The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Suspended Congress leaders may join Chiranjeevi bandwagon

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 15, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Suspended Congress leaders may join Chiranjeevi bandwagon

Special Correspondent

MLC and Zilla Parishad vice-chief take the lead

Srikakulam: Even as the two major political parties in the district viz Congress and TDP were assessing the likely impact of film star Chiranjeevi’s entry into politics, which now seems to be a matter of time, some important leaders have already taken the lead and announced their intention to join the bandwagon of matinee idol.

Incidentally the two leaders who gave sufficient hints to join the new outfit are two senior leaders from the ruling Congress, who were suspended by the party for their anti-party activities. They are Gorle Haribabu Naidu, MLC, and Duvvada Srinivas, ZP vice-chairman and his brothers.

Gorle Haribabi Naidu is a leader of Kapu community, which is one of the numerically dominant communities in the district. He is a senior Congress leader, who headed DCC for nearly 10 years, during which time the party was out of power.

During MLC elections, Mr. Naidu failed to get official nomination for which he blamed Revenue Minister Dharmana Prasada Rao. With a twist of political developments, Mr. Naidu got the support of arch-rival TDP and became MLC. The TDP, which was not in a position to win a seat, extended support to Mr. Naidu to embarrass the Revenue Minister.

However, Mr. Naidu was suspended from the Congress and since then remained an independent. Now he made it clear that he would join the party of Mr. Chiranjeevi as and when it is floated. Mr. Naidu claimed that he spoke to Mr. Chiranjeevi.

Mr. Duvvada Srinivas, up-and-coming leader from Tekkali area, had also locked horns with the Revenue Minister and criticized him in public.

This had resulted in his suspension from the party. Mr. Srinivas’s accessibility to Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy had failed to help him. He also gave sufficient indications to join the party of silver screen idol.

More desertions likely

The general assessment is once the announcement was made, the desertions would start, more from the TDP and less from the ruling Congress. The fact that Congress is the ruling party would be the glue, political analysts say.

In Srikakulam district it has always been the TDP versus the Congress and other political parties have only notional presence.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Andhra Pradesh