In a big setback to former chief minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy, his close associate and who was also in jail with him as accused in CBI cases Rajya Sabha member Mopidevi Venkata Ramana is resigning from YSR Congress Party only to join TDP.
Along with another Rajya Sabha member, he is said to be ready to submit his resignation to the Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagadeep Dhankhar on Thursday, before resigning from the YCP. Along with him another YCP Rajya Sabha member, who is an industrialist, also resigned. Both of them later joined the TDP.
Both of them are said to have already met Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu last Sunday and taken clearance from him. A minister in Chandrababu Naidu’s cabinet has reportedly played a key role in making these two Rajya Sabha members to resign from YCP.
Venkata Ramana is also YCP President for Bapatla district and will resign from the party post also. He is said to be unhappy after Jaganmohan Reddy refused to oblige him when he wanted to contest from Repalle Assembly seat in recent elections.
Presently YCP has 11 Rajya Sabha members. Some more Rajya Sabha members of the party are also lobbying to join Jana Sena or BJP by resigning from YCP. They are said to be vexed with unilateral attitude of Jaganmohan Reddy, even after humiliating defeat in recent polls.
Mopidevi was a senior leader from combined Guntur district and started his career as a student leader. He first became Mandal President and contested as Congress candidate in 1989 and 1994 assembly elections from the Kuchinapudi assembly constituency and was defeated.
However, he won in 1999 and 2004, he won from Kuchinapudi constituency. As Kuchipudi constituency was merged with Repalle constituency, in 2009 he contested from Repalle and won from there. He served as Minister of Ports, Infrastructure and Investments in YS Rajasekhar Reddy’s cabinet. After that, he served as Excise Minister in Kiran Kumar Reddy’s cabinet.
Before the 2014 elections, he resigned from the Congress party and joined the YSRCP. In 2014 and 2019, he contested from Repalle Assembly constituency on behalf of YSRCP and lost. But after the 2019 elections, YS Jagan sent him to the Legislative Council and took him into his cabinet. Later in 2020 he was sent by Rajya Sabha.