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Controversial TDP MP's origins lie in Congress party

Satrucherla Vijayarama Raju is a man in the eye of the storm. It was his defection from the Telugu Desam Party to the Congress on Tuesday that stirred up a controversy over 'horse-trading' by the Congress to garner the numbers to form an alternative government at the Centre.

Vijayarama Raju, popularly known as Satrucherla, has basically been a Congressman. He started his political career in the Congress and was the party MLA from Naguru (Scheduled Tribe-reserved) constituency in Vizianagaram district during 1978-89. He was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1989 and 1991 elections from Parvathipuram (ST-reserved) constituency on the Congress ticket by margins of 42,641 and 49,512 votes respectively.

Incidentally, after getting an inkling that he would be denied a renomination by the Congress to contest the 1996 Lok Sabha polls, he switched over to the NTR-TDP, led by NT Rama Rao's widow, N Lakshmi Parvathi on the eve of the elections. He contested the polls on the NTR-TD ticket but failed to get re-elected. The Congress candidate, Vyricherla Pradeep Kumar Deo was elected, defeating his nearest Telugu Desam Party rival Viswasarai Narasimha Rao by a narrow margin. Satrucherla was pushed to the third position in that election, securing only 100,835 votes.

Once again, on the eve of the 1998 Lok Sabha elections, Satrucherla defected to the Telugu Desam Party from NTR-TDP and contested the polls successfully, trouncing the Congress's V P K Deo by a margin of 23,277 votes.

As an MLA and later as Congress MP, Satrucherla was very close to Dr Y S Rajasekhar Reddy, currently Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee president and Lok Sabha member from Cuddapah. "Satrucherla has been a close confidant of YSR and even when he left the Congress to join NTR-TDP and later the ruling TDP, he has been maintaining close contacts with YSR," said a senior Congress leader.

However, the TDP leadership is particularly sore with him since he surfaced at the AICC office in Delhi on Tuesday to announce his support for the Congress, even as he had told TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu and other leaders earlier in the day that he was very much with them.

Ch Suryanarayana, TDP programmes committee incharge who was instrumental in bringing Satrucherla to the TDP fold on the eve of the 1998 elections, is pretty sore with him now. Suryanarayana told newsmen in Hyderabad on Wednesday afternoon that Satrucherla was admitted into the TDP despite bitter opposition from the TDP's district leaders.

Suryanarayana said the TDP cadres were angry with Satrucherla's 'betrayal' and there were reports that "the defector's" effigies were burnt at several places in Srikakulam and Vizianagaram district on Wednesday. "He has proved to be a chameleon. He had stated publicly that 'if I defect to Congress, history will not forgive me' but within hours, he addressed a press conference at the AICC office. The people will teach him a lesson in the next elections," Suryanarayana said.

The 51-year-old Satrucherla, who looks younger than his age, hails from a tribal chieftain's family. After studying in Raja's College at Bobbili, he did a stint in Indian Army's Corps of Signals. He is an agriculturist by profession and lives in Chinnamerangi village. He has been focussing on the welfare of tribals in his predominantly ST-dominated constituency.

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