Former legislator from Guntur (West) Maddali Giridhar, who got elected on Telugu Desam Party ticket in 2019 elections but defected to the YSR Congress party within a few months, has quit the YSRCP.
On Monday, Maddali sent his resignation letter to YSRCP president and former chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy.
He said he was quitting the primary membership of the party and also the president of YSRCP for Guntur city for personal reasons.
After defecting to the TDP, Maddali turned a bitter critic of the TDP and its president N Chandrababu Naidu and general secretary Nara Lokesh. He even alleged that Naidu tried to lure him to buy his vote in the MLC elections.
“Chandrababu Naidu owns the patent for conspiracies and backstabbing politics. We left the TDP as Chandrababu Naidu never treated us with respect. The TDP chief already has the history of buying out 23 YSRCP MLAs. We (the TDP rebel MLAs) have associated with the YSRCP purely because of our affection towards Chief Minister Y S Jagan. Nara Lokesh is the reason for the TDP’s downfall,” he said.
According to sources in the TDP, Maddali has been sending feelers to the party leadership that he is interested in returning to the party, if gets an opportunity. But so far, there has been no response from the TDP leadership.
If he is denied entry into the TDP, Maddali is also considering the option of Jana Sena Party headed by power star Pawan Kalyan. But there, too, he might draw a blank as there is a sort of understanding between Pawan Kalyan and Naidu that they should not entertain defections from each other party.
But Maddali is hopeful that he might get a chance to jump into the ruling coalition one day or the other, sources said.
