Telugu Desam Party, which had virtually been on ventilator in Telangana all these days, faced a virtual death on Wednesday with both the MLAs of the party joining the ruling ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi.
Sandra Venkata Veeraiah, MLA from Sattupalli assembly constituency and Mecha Nageshwara Rao, MLA from Ashwaraopet constituency (both in Khammam district) announced that they were merging the TD legislature party (TDLP) with TRS legislature party.
They gave a letter to this effect to state assembly speaker Pocharam Srinivas Reddy in the evening. Later, state legislature secretary Narasimha Chary issued a bulletin, acknowledging the merger.
In fact, Sandra already quit the TDP long ago and has been moving with the TRS, but technically, he remained a TDP MLA as he did not resign from his assembly membership.
But Mecha has remained loyal to the TDP for the last two and a half years and was actively participating in the TDP meetings. However, he, too, realised that there is no future for the TDP in Telangana and hence, he decided to join the TRS to sustain his political career.
Mecha met TRS president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao along with minister Vemula Prashant Reddy and formally joined the TRS. He declared that the TDP has no existence in Telangana and the TRS is the only party which can do justice to the people.
With the joining of the two TDP MLAs, the strength of the TRS has now gone up to 103. The Congress has six MLAs, while the MIM has seven and the BJP two. There is one vacant seat, that of Nagarjunasagar for which by-election is being held on April 17.