Hyderabad: Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in Telangana, another prominent leader and former MP of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Nama Nageswara Rao, resigned from his primary membership on Tuesday. He is likely to join the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) soon.
Rao, a promoter of Madhucon Projects Limited, is one of the richest politicians in the country and had declared assets worth of Rs 113 crore in the recent election affidavit.
Rao has sent his resignation letter to TDP national president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu.
In his letter, Rao wrote, “I tried my best to bring back the glory of the party. There is a big question on the future of the party in Telangana. In keeping with the aspirations of the people, I am resigning from the party’s primary and politburo membership.”
Rao was an MP from the Khammam Lok Sabha constituency during 2009 and 2014. He lost the last parliamentary elections to Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy of the YSR Congress.
He again tasted defeat in the recent assembly elections when he contested against TRS candidate Puvvada Ajay Kumar from the Khammam assembly segment.
Rao has been staying away from party activities and skipped the TDP’s recent politburo meeting held in Amaravati.
On Monday, Rao met TRS president and Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekar Rao at his residence.
Sources said KCR had promised him the Khammam MP ticket by replacing the sitting MP, Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy, who too recently switched camps and joined the ruling party. Rao is expected to join the TRS on Wednesday.
The Congress is also said to have been keen to bring Rao into the party fold and had reserved the Khammam seat for him. But Rao seems to be preferring the TRS over the grand old party.