Narasaraopet MP Devarayalu quits YSRCP, Lok Sabha; 3rd parliamentarian to leave party this month

Narasaraopet MP Devarayalu quits YSRCP, Lok Sabha; 3rd parliamentarian to leave party this month

Lavu Srikrishna Devarayalu, the YSR Congress Party MP from Narasaraopet in Andhra Pradesh, quit from the Lok Sabha and the party on Monday morning. Devarayalu is the third MP to quit the YSRCP in recent days over seat allocation. Earlier this month, Kurnool MP Sanjeev Kumar and Machilipatnam MP Vallabhaneni Balashowry quit the party.

The first-time MP said he was disillusioned and confused after being told that he was being shifted to Guntur Lok Sabha constituency as the party decided to field a backward class candidate in Narasaraopet for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

“All seven YSRCP MLAs under the Narasaraopet Lok Sabha seat are backing me for renomination from here, but the party has different ideas. I was not consulted before the party decided not to renominate me from Narasaraopet, and cannot continue anymore,” Devarayalu said. He added that he has no interest in contesting from the Guntur seat.

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Devarayalu said there was utter confusion in the party rank and file as over 60 MLAs and over 10 MPs are being dropped. Mangalagiri MLA A Ramakrishna Reddy also quit the party recently after he was denied a ticket which later went to a backward class candidate who was appointed the constituency in-charge.

Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy has appointed new coordinators and in-charges in at least 65 Assembly and 15 Lok Sabha constituencies. These coordinators and in-charges would be the YSRCP candidates in the upcoming polls. The changes are being made based on the “winning ability of the sitting MLAs and MPs,” said senior YSRCP leader and Education Minister Botsa Satyanaryana.

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Andhra Pradesh is set to hold elections to its 175-member Assembly and for the 25 Lok Sabha seats from the state in about three months. Among the other leaders who are likely to be dropped are Visakhapatnam MP M V V Satyanarayana, Tirupati MP M Gurumurth, and Kakinada MP V Geetha. Sources said that the chief minister is changing the candidates based on anti-incumbency and winnability survey reports.

The YSRCP is also wary of the TDP-JSP alliance, and the Congress party’s attempts to revive its fortunes with the appointment of Jagan’s sister Y S Sharmila as the Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee president.

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