The defection of Vizianagaram Zilla Parishad Chairman and former YSRCP district president Majji Srinivasa Rao, popularly known as Chinna Srinu, to the TDP has given the ruling party a potentially valuable organisational boost in North Andhra ahead of the state’s local-body elections.
Srinivasa Rao and his daughter, Siri Sahasra, joined the TDP late on Tuesday in the presence of Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu in Amaravati. The move is politically significant as Srinivasa Rao was regarded as a key YSRCP organiser with a close working relationship with party president YS Jagan Mohan Reddy. He is also a close relative of senior YSRCP leader and former minister Botsa Satyanarayana. It raises questions about whether his district-level political network and supporters will follow him into the TDP.
His exit therefore represents more than the loss of just another party functionary. Srinivasa Rao joined active YSRCP politics in 2015 and subsequently became the party’s Vizianagaram district president and Zilla Parishad chairman.
The timing is significant. Andhra Pradesh’s local-body elections are expected later this year, with the Election Department indicating that the process is to be completed by October, subject to the election authorities’ schedule. The YSRCP has been seeking to make the local polls a test of grassroots strength and a political battle between its organisation and the ruling TDP-led NDA coalition. Infact, the opposition party sources indicated that party chief is planning to field its friend MLAs and MPs and other senior leader as candidate to ensure they remain connected to ground and actively fight the TDP on the ground.
