TDP MLA suspended after he meets YSR Cong honorary prez

Telugu Desam Party suspended member of Legislative Assembly Kodali Srivenkateswara Rao alias Nani from the party after he met YSR Congress honourary president Y S Vijaya in Hyderabad on Monday.

"Nani has been suspended from the party with immediate effect," a one-line statement from TDP said minutes after his meeting with Vijaya.

The MLA later went to Chanchalguda prison to meet YSR Congress president and Kadapa MP Y S Jaganmohan Reddy, jailed in a disproportionate assets case. Former MLA V Radhakrishna accompanied Nani.

Nani and Radha are known to be good friends since they were elected to the Assembly for the first time in 2004. Nani joining YSRC is now a mere formality, sources said.

Soon after YSRC's spectacular victory in the recent by-elections, huge banners bearing pictures of the MLA with Y S Vijaya and Jagan appeared in Gudivada and other places.

Nani was elected to the Andra Pradesh assembly in 2004 and 2009 from Gudivada in Krishna district. He is close to film star N T R Junior, and has been a loyalist of Rajya Sabha member Nandamuri Harikrishna. He has been staying away from the TDP activities for a long time now and there is speculation that he would join the YSRC sooner than later. The turf war in Krishna district TDP also kept Nani away from the party affairs and he had been sulking for sometime.

At least a couple of other MLAs from the TDP in Krishna district are expected to follow in the footsteps of Nani. The TDP leadership has initiated steps to placate disgruntled MLAs and prevent their exit, sources said.

Krishna district is one of the traditional strongholds of the TDP, and the ongoing affairs have become a serious cause for worry for the party.