There were dissenting voices in the TDP over his induction but the chief minister overrode them. As the sitting TDP MLA from Eluru, Badeti Radhakrishna alias Chanti is considered weak, Naidu wanted someone to fortify the party.
Published Feb 16, 2025 | 5:23 PM ⚊ Updated Feb 16, 2025 | 5:23 PM
Alla Nani with Chandrababu Naidu. (X)
Synopsis: TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu inducted former YSRCP MLA Alla Kali Krishna Srinivas into the party. The induction was in hopes of securing the party in the West Godavari district, particularly in Eluru. Since the TDP-led NDA formed the government in Andhra Pradesh, YSRCP leaders have been flocking to the party.
TDP supremo and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu appeared to have kept the interests of the TDP in West Godavari district on top priority while inducting former YSRCP MLA Alla Kali Krishna Srinivas, known as Alla Nani, into the party.
Alla Nani happens to be one of three Nani’s in Andhra Pradesh who were bitter critics of Chandrababu Naidu under the YSRCP regime. The other two Nani’s are: Kodali Nani, known for bad-mouthing the TDP, and Perni Nani, who was no less critical of the TDP.
The induction of Alla Nani into the TDP on Thursday, 13 February, was in hopes of securing the party in the West Godavari district, particularly in Eluru, where Nani is a powerful leader, even though he lost the Assembly election in 2024.
With the YSRCP having been blown up into smithereens in the elections, he quickly resigned from the party in August last year. He was the deputy chief minister in YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s Cabinet.
There were dissenting voices in the TDP over his induction but the chief minister overrode them. As the sitting TDP MLA from Eluru, Badeti Radhakrishna alias Chanti is considered weak, Naidu wanted someone to fortify the party.
TDP workers were not able to digest the development as he allegedly harassed them under the YSRCP regime. With the exit of Alla Nani from the YSRCP, the party now lies in tatters in the constituency.
However, the integration of Alla Nani’s cadres into the TDP might not be easy and smooth as embers continue to smoulder at the ground level. TDP workers had to fight those of Nani for the last five years to keep the party alive. After the induction of Nani, Badeti Radhakrishna said he would abide by the decision of the party leadership though the party workers had reservations.
“We will honour the party’s decision,” he said.
The other two Nani’s are continuing in the YSRCP, licking election-inflicted wounds. Kodali Sri Venkateswara Rao, known as Kodali Nani, is keeping a low profile.
He has been with the YSRCP since 2012, after leaving the TDP. He was MLA from Gudivada from 2004 to 2024. He was a minister in Jagan Mohan Reddy’s cabinet between June 2019 and April 2022. Of all the YSRCP leaders, Kodali was the most abusive critic of Chandrababu Naidu and Pawan Kalyan.
Then, there is former minister Perni Venkataramaiah, known as Perni Nani, who is now neck-deep in a Public Distribution System (PDS) rice scam. In December 2024, authorities found 378 tonnes of PDS rice missing from the warehouse owned by his wife, Jayasudha, in Machilipatnam.
Both Nani and his wife were subsequently listed as accused in the case but received relief from the high court from arrest.
After the TDP-led NDA decimated the YSRCP in the June 2024 Assembly elections, its leaders ran for cover. The TDP-Jana Sena-BJP formation had not imagined its victory would be so spectacular — it swept away 164 of 175 seats, leaving only 11 for Jagan Mohan Reddy.
The party leaders, who were involved directly or indirectly in physical attacks on TDP leaders, went into hiding. But the TDP, after a lot of deliberation over whether it was wise to unleash a crackdown on them, seemed worried over a political backlash that it was resorting to vengeful politics.
However, it decided to crack the whip as the pressure was too much from the party workers. They have been unhappy over the party adopting a soft line towards Jagan Mohan Reddy’s men.
The police ferreted out former MLA and YSRCP leader Vallabhaneni Vamsi Krishna from his hideout in Rayadurgam in Hyderabad and took him away to Vijayawada on 13 February. He figures as an accused in the case of the attack on the TDP office in Gannavaram in February 2023.
The police have slapped several cases on him, including one under the Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe Atrocities (Prevention) Act. He is now in a 14-day judicial remand in Vijayawada jail.
Towards the end of the five-year term of the YSRCP rule, Ongole MP Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy read the writing on the wall and, also unable to bear the suffocation in the YSRCP, joined the TDP ahead of the last Lok Sabha elections and retained the seat in the June 2024 general elections.
After the fall of the YSRCP, in August 2024, YSRCP Rajya Sabha member Mopidevi Venkata Ramana Rao bid adieu to his party and his membership in the upper house. He later joined the TDP. His grouse against the YSRCP was that he was denied an Assembly ticket.
In August 2024, YSRCP Rajya Sabha member Beeda Masthan Rao resigned from the YSRCP and the upper house. Two months later, in October, he returned to the TDP in the presence of Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu.
A three-time MLA, Kapu Ramachandra Reddy from the Rayadurg constituency, also left the YSRCP after being denied a ticket in the 2024 Assembly elections. He found a safe haven in the BJP and joined the saffron brigade in March 2024.
Of all the YSRCP leaders, the most astute was Kolusu Parthasarathy. He left the YSRCP in a huff over the denial of an Assembly ticket for Penamaluru, which he was representing in the Assembly. He did not like the offer of a Lok Sabha ticket from Machilipatnam as compensation.
He left the YSRCP ahead of the elections and joined the TDP. He won the Assembly election from Nuzvid. He was immediately inducted into the state cabinet by Chandrababu Naidu and is now holding the portfolio of Housing and Information and Public Relations.
(Edited by Muhammed Fazil.)
