Former Telangana Congress leader Padi Kaushik Reddy on Tuesday said he will join the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) party for the development of Huzurabad constituency.
"Tomorrow (Wednesday) at 1 p.m. in the presence of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao I will join TRS," stated Reddy in a press conference.
He said his close friends and supporters from every village numbering up to 100 from each of them told him that joining the TRS is the need for developing Huzurabad constituency.
"I have come to this decision after deliberating with all of them for 5 - 6 days. Tomorrow (Wednesday) by 1 p.m. all my friends and soldiers should assemble at TRS party office," he said.
Other reasons Reddy cited for jumping ship are the developmental activities being undertaken by Rao, including the supply of irrigated water to farmers in his place.
He observed that all the farmers in his place are content.
"Grandfathers and grannies are very happy with the pensions they are receiving. Youngsters who got married are very happy with Kalyana Lakshmi and Shaadi Mubarak (schemes)," Reddy noted.
Huzurabad Assembly constituency recently fell vacant in the light of former health minister Etala Rajender resigning in protest after major differences cropped up between him and the Chief Minister.
Rao stripped Rajender of his ministerial portfolio, following allegations of land encroachment, resulting in the latter exiting TRS and jumping ship to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at Delhi in the presence of the party's senior national leaders recently.
Reddy is the latest exit from Telangana Congress party, which dreamed of storming into power by carving out Telangana in 2014 but failed to do so.
Several top lifetime Congress leaders have crossed over into TRS while the former recently appointed Revanth Reddy as party head to revive its fortunes.