Bandaru quits party post in protest

Visakhapatnam: Former minister and senior Telugu Desam leader Bandaru Satyanarayana Murthy resigned as party vice-president on Monday.

He sent the resignation letter to TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu.

Bandaru---who recently won the Pendurthy Assembly seat was a minister in the Naidu Cabinet before---was expecting a ministerial berth. But when he came to know that Narsipatnam MLA Chintakayala Ayyanna Patrudu and Bhimili legislator Ganta Srinivasa Rao had found a place, he did not attend Naidu’s swearing-in.

Bandaru is particularly unhappy that he was ignored in spite of serving the party since its inception, whereas those who joined later and left the party to return again were taken into the Cabinet. He was indirectly referring to Ganta, who joined the party only in 1999, enjoyed posts as MP and MLA, but quit to join Praja Rajyam floated by film actor K Chiranjeevi. When PRP was merged in the Congress, he became a minister.

After learning that the Congress could not win in the wake of its decision to bifurcate the State, he jumped back into the TDP.

Now he became a minister, Bandaru felt. He would confine himself to Pendurthy constituency and not have any role in the party affairs.

Ironically, it was he who welcomed Ganta into the party recently when Patrudu and others opposed vehemently. When ‘injustice’ was done to him, Bandaru could not control himself and gave vent to his feelings.

Quite a few TDP seniors in North Andhra are unhappy that they were not made ministers. They include Kimidi Kala Venkata Rao in Srikakulam, Pathivada Narayana Swamy and Kolla Lalitha Kumari.

It is likely that they would express their displeasure to Naidu when the Cabinet meets here shortly.