Jana Sena Party headed by Andhra Pradesh deputy chief minister Pawan Kalyan has mostly been confined to East and Godavari districts and parts of north Andhra and some areas of Rayalaseema.
But it has little presence in any elected body in Krishna and Guntur districts.
Now, for the first time, the Jana Sena Party made a grand entry into the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) with four of the corporators belonging to the YSR Congress party shifting their loyalties to Jana Sena.
The four corporators – Ummidishetti Radhika, Mahadev Appaji Rao, Attuluri Adilakshmi and Maripilla Rajesh, joined the Jana Sena Party in the presence of Pawan Kalyan on Tuesday.
Interestingly, three of these four corporators, except Radhika, were originally elected to the VMC on the TDP ticket. Soon after the elections in 2021, these three TDP corporators defected to the YSRCP.
Now that the TDP-led NDA coming to power in the state, they originally planned to come back to the TDP, but after realising that they had no takers in the party, they decided to jump into the Jana Sena Party.
In a way, the TDP discards have found their rehabilitation in the Jana Sena Party. There is no immediate reaction from the TDP in this regard.
Yet, the YSRCP still has the majority in the 64-member VMC. After the defection of the four MLAs into Jana Sena Party, the YSRC still has 45 members, while the TDP strength remains at 14 and CPI (M) has one corporator.
