Even as former minister and ex-Bharatiya Janata Party president of Andhra Pradesh unit Kanna Lakshmi Narayana joined the Telugu Desam Party with a huge hype and hungama on Thursday, rumblings surfaced within the Guntur TDP.
Former MP from Narasaraopet and TDP leader Rayapati Sambasiva Rao, who the other day said he had no objection to Kanna joining the TDP and would cooperate with the latter wherever party president N Chandrababu Naidu fielded him, took a complete U-turn.
Expressing serious resentment over the entry of Kanna into the TDP, Rayapati told reporters that nobody expected Naidu admitting the former BJP chief into the party with such a hungama.
“There is no sense in taking Kanna into TDP. He was a bitter critic of the TDP in the past and he had called me and Chandrababu Naidu names in public. He is a spent force. He would be defeated wherever he contests,” the former MP said.
Rayapati expressed surprise over Chandrababu Naidu saying that the party needed Kanna in the current political situation.
“How many votes will Kanna get? When I contested for the Guntur Lok Sabha seat, and he contested for the Pedakurapadu Assembly, I got more votes,” he recalled.
Earlier, Kanna left his residence in Guntur in an ostentatious show with a large number of followers in hundreds of vehicles and reached the TDP office at Mangalagiri in the afternoon.
The TDP president welcomed him into the party fold presenting a yellow scarf to him. Kanna’s followers, numbering over 1,000 also joined the TDP amid fanfare.
Naidu said Kanna’s entry augured well for the party which should bring down the YSR Congress Party government in the state.
