At last, Andhra Pradesh state Bharatiya Janata Party president Somu Veerraju, who has also been a member of the state legislative council, thanks to Telugu Desam Party president and former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, will be losing his post shortly.
Veerraju is among the three sitting MLCs, whose term will come to an end by May 31. He became the MLC under MLAs’ quota in 2015 as part of the alliance between the TDP and the BJP then. Though the BJP had only four MLAs in the state assembly, he got elected due to the support from the other TDP MLAs.
Later, Veerraju turned a vociferous critic of the TDP and Chandrababu Naidu and because of his aggressive nature, he was picked up as the state BJP president in place of Kanna Lakshminarayana, after the TDP lost power in 2019.
Another MLC who will be completing his term on May 31 is TDP member Mohd Ahmed Sharif, the chairman of state legislative council.
It will be a big relief to the YSR Congress party, as he created hurdles for the passage of three capitals bills and AP Capital Region Development Authority Abolition Bill in the council.
Sharif, though very soft-spoken person, had become a target for the YSRC for following the instructions of Naidu with regard to the capital bills. Now that he will be out of the council, the YSRC has to choose a new chairman for the council.
Besides, YSRC member Devasani Chinna Govind Reddy (YSR Congress) will also completing his term. All the three MLC seats can be easily won by the YSRC under the MLAs’ quota, as the party has huge majority in the state assembly.
In Telangana, the outgoing members of the legislative council are: legislative council chairman Gutha Sukhender Reddy, deputy chairman Neti Vidyasagar, Kadiyam Srihari, Akula Lalitha and Bodakunti Venkateshwarlu (all Telangana Rashtra Samithi).