YSRC MLA joins Naidu party; sixth cross-over in a week

Yerragondapalem MLA P David Raju met TDP supremo and Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu at the latter’s riverfront residence here on Sunday and “returned” to the party. “I had served in TDP for 24 years previously. I have returned to the party in deference to the wishes of my constituency people,” David Raju told newsmen, emerging out of Chandrababu’s residence. 

David Raju had been the chairman of Prakasam Zilla Parishad and also an MLA when he was in the TDP. In 2014, he joined the YSRC and got elected from Yerragondapalem. Two MLAs each from Kurnool and Kadapa districts, one from Vijayawada and now another from Prakasam district have defected from the YSRC to the TDP since Monday last. One MLC from Kadapa also joined the ruling party. 

Accusing Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu of “alluring and purchasing” some of his party MLAs, the YSR Congress president had last week dared him to get the defected legislators to resign from their posts and seek a fresh mandate.