In a yet another rude shock to the Telugu Desam Party, prominent businessman from ellore and two-time legislator Beeda Masthan Rao resigned from the party and joined the YSR Congress party in the presence of chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy on Saturday.
Popularly known as BMR, the former MLA from Kavali wrote a letter to TDP president and former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu saying that he was quitting the party on personal reasons.
BMR’s resignation is a big setback to the TDP, as he is one of the prominent BC leaders from Nellore belonging to the Yadava community.
Though BMR was asking for Kavali assembly seat again, Naidu forced him to contest the parliamentary elections from Nellore against Adala Prabhakar Reddy of YSR Congress party. BMR lost by a margin of over 1.48 lakh votes.
Adala was originally given the TDP ticket from Nellore (rural) assembly constituency, but even as he was taking part in the election campaign, he defected to the YSRC and got the MP ticket from Nellore in place of sitting candidate Mekapati Rajamohan Reddy.
Since then, BMR had been sulking in the TDP. He also had been under tremendous pressure to safeguard his business interests, in the wake of a series of raids by the Income Tax department on his ventures, including a shrimp farming and exports firm.
Over 25 years, the BMR Group has grown to an industrial conglomerate with 250 hectares of hatcheries, 600 hectares of farming, on-site labs and feed mills, a state-of-the-art factory covering 50,000 sq. ft. in Dhamavaram, with a capacity of 25 metric tonnes per day.
During the TDP regime, his name was also considered for the post of the chairman of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD), but the chance went to another Yadav – Putta Sudhakar Yadav from Kadapa. He, however, was made a member of the Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development Authority.
BMR served as an MLA of Kavali Assembly segment for two successive terms in 2004 and 2009, before he lost to the YSRCP candidate in 2014. His brother, Beeda Ravichandra, is presently heading the Nellore district unit of the TDP.
