TD’s Gandhi, Gopinath walk into TRS fort

TRS supremo and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao welcomed them into the party fold by offering them traditional pink shawls. The 12 TD MLAs, who defected to the ruling party later, met the Chief Minister. They include Errabelli Dayakar Rao, Talasani Srinivas Yadav, G Sayanna, T Prakash Goud, Teegala Krishna Reddy, Manchireddy Kishan Reddy, Madhavaram Krishna Rao, KP Vivekananda, Challa Dharma Reddy, S Rajender Reddy, Maganti Gopinath and A Gandhi.

On his turn, Speaker S Madhusudana Chary took a decision on Thursday by including 12 TD leaders into the ruling party in response to a letter written by Errabelli Dayakar Rao.


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Later, Maganti Gopinath said he served the Telugu Desam party for 34 years with commitment. Gopinath was apologetic for switching loyalties as it might hurt sentiments of Telugu Desam party. The decision to defect to TRS was for the cause of the people of his Jubilee Hills constituency, he said. “Despite having respect to my parent party, I took the decision to meet the objective of the TRS government to make Hyderabad a global destination and transform the state into a golden Telangana. I will strive to develop my Assembly segment by involving TRS leaders and activists”, he said.

Arikepudi Gandhi also said he crossed over to the ruling party for the cause of development of his Serilingampally segment. “I served the TDP with total dedication for a long time. But as per the people’s aspirations and development of my segment, I took the decision to join the TRS”, he added.