Devineni Rajasekhar (Nehru) joined the ruling Telugu Desam Party on Tuesday Nehru's 'homecoming' is seen as a further consolidation of Kamma forces under the TDP regime.  

 

In a major setback to the Congress party in Andhra Pradesh, senior party leader from Vijayawada Devineni Rajasekhar (Nehru) called on chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu and joined the ruling Telugu Desam Party on Tuesday.

 

There has been speculation that the Devineni Nehru is all set to join Naidu's 'Yellow Brigade'. Today's meeting put an end to all speculation about Nehru's next political move.

 

Emerging from the meeting with CM Naidu, Nehru said he had joined the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) to become a part of the 'big developments' taking place in Andhra Pradesh. 

 

"We have seen developmental projects such as the Amaravati capital project under the leadership of the CM. There is no quid pro quo in our decision to join the TDP. At the present juncture, we feel it is a good decision," Nehru told the media, accompanied by his son, who is also state president of the Youth Congress.

 

TDP Andhra Pradesh president Kala Venkata Rao said Nehru joined the party without any conditions. "As he is a senior leader, the party will utilise his services suitably,"  he said.

 

Nehru's 'homecoming' is seen as a further consolidation of Kamma forces under the TDP regime.

 

In reaction, alleging that Nehru was indulging in the anti-party activities, Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee president Raghuvira Reddy expelled him, his son Avinash and many of his followers from the party.

 

The Congress has received this jolt at a time when the party is struggling hard to regain lost ground in the state following the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh prior to the 2014 elections.

 

The Congress party, though not represented in Assembly, has been able to get its act slowly back together by taking up issues such as the special status to Andhra Pradesh, anti-bauxite mining, drought, etc. under the leadership of N Raghuvira Reddy. 

 

Ever since he and his son lost the 2014 election, Nehru has been maintaining a low profile in the Congress. 

 

Earlier, there were reports that he would join the opposition YSR Congress. Senior YSRC leaderBotsa Satyanarayana was said to have been mediating between Nehru and the party. 

 

But, the moves ended abruptly as Vangaviti Radha, son of  Nehru's arch rival from the late eighties Vangaviti Ranga, opposed it.  

 

Incidentally, Ranga and Nehru represented a legendary Kapu and Kamma hostility, which later became a theme for a Ram Gopal Varma movie.   

 

The bloody rivalry between Kamma and  Kapu finally led to the brutal killing of Ranga in 1988. Later,  Nehru joined the Congress in 1997 and became close to YS Rajasekhar Reddy.