After a lot of dilly dallying and brainstorming with his followers, former assembly speaker and senior Congress leader Nadendla Manohar on Thursday called it quits to the party and is all set to join the Jana Sena Party floated by power star Pawan Kalyan.
Nadendla submitted his resignation to the party headquarters in Delhi through fax and left for Tirupati, where he would be meeting Pawan Kalyan and formally join the Jana Sena in the evening, sources close to him said.
Nadendla has been one of the most hard core loyalists of the Congress party and is considered to be closer to party president Rahul Gandhi. In fact, he was the one who made all the arrangements for Rahul’s visit to Andhra a couple of years ago.
A few months ago, Nadendla, along with several Congress leaders, met AICC president Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi and discussed the ways to strengthen the Congress party in Andhra Pradesh.
And there was a talk among the Congress party circles in Andhra Pradesh that Nadendla would be made Pradesh Congress Committee chief, replacing N Raghuveera Reddy.
However, recent reports from Delhi indicated that Raghuveera Reddy would continue as the party president till the next elections. And that has disappointed Nadendla a lot.
Secondly, he has realized that there is no future for the Congress party in Andhra Pradesh for another 10 years and so, he would be wasting his energies.
Sources said he tried to sustain his political career by entering Telangana assembly as an MLA. He reportedly asked for the party ticket to contest from Kukatpalli in the settlers’ quota.
But since Nadendla represented Tenali in the past, he cannot be considered as a settler in Telangana and hence, the party did not consider his name. So, he had no option but to look for alternative platform to sustain his political career.
In June this year, Nadendla had a meeting with the Jana Sena Party president at his residence in Hyderabad. It led to the speculation that he might join the Jana Sena Party.
Since the former Speaker represents a powerful community in central coastal Andhra, it would be a plus point for Jana Sena if he joins hands with Pawan.