Congress Vizag house to become empty soon

By SNV Sudhir

Visakhapatnam, Feb 6, 2014: The Congress house in Vizag is likely to become empty by month end.  Of the 11 Congress MLAs in the district, around eight are set to leave the party and join other parties in the coming days as the election schedule is expected to be out in the first week of March.  MLA Golla Babu Rao had already left the party and got himself reelected on YSRC ticket from Payakaraopeta long back.

While ports and infrastructure minister, Ganta Srinivas Rao along with four MLAs have already decided to leave the ruling party and are waiting for right opportunity and time to switch loyalties to TD, two more ruling party MLAs are preparing ground to jump the fence to join YSRC. 

 Vizag north MLA and former city Congress president, Tainala Vijay Kumar had held a meeting with his cadre on Thursday and conveyed his decision to join YSRC, Narsipatnam MLA, Bolem Mutyala Papa is also reliably learnt that she would join Jagan bandwagon. Both the MLAs are expected to join YSRC in the presence of party president, YS Jaganmohan Reddy along with Dharmana Prasad Rao in Srikakulam on Sunday.

After these exits, the ruling party in the district will be left with tribal welfare minister P Balaraju, government whip Dronamraju Srinivas and Vizag west MLA Malla Vijayaprasad. The Vizag West MLA is also rumoured to be in dilemma and also looking at joining YSRC shortly.

Interestingly, most of them who are joining other parties are debutant MLAs and new to politics. The emergence of YSR Congress, as a strong force in the region, and the Congress led UPA’s decision to bifurcate the state have forced these budding politicians think about their political future and take the decision to leave the ruling party.

MLAs Muthamsetti Srinivasa Rao, Panchakarla Ramesh Babu, Chinthalapudi Venkataramaiah have switched loyalty to the Congress from PRP, after its merger with the grand old party. They contested the 2009 polls on PRP tickets and are known close aides of Ganta Srinivas Rao. Yelamanchali MLA U V Ramanamurthy Raju (Kannababu) is also said to be part of the ports and infrastructure minister’s coterie and will join TD along with him.

Payakaraopeta, MLA, Golla Babu Rao had jumped the fence long back from Congress and was reelected during a by poll on the YSR Congress ticket. Rest of the Congress MLAs including, Tainala Vijay Kumar, Bolem Mutyala Papa and Malla Vijay Prasad are perturbed about their future, in view of the misrule, anti incumbency wave in the region, which has grown stronger following the Centre’s decision on Telangana.