Former minister Kanna joins BJP

Vijayawada: Former Minister Kanna Lakshminarayana on Wednesday joined the BJP. The five-time MLA from Guntur district was the latest in the line of the Congress leaders joining the saffron party. Along with him, Nagaraju, who was the Guntur Municipal Corporation former mayor, too, followed in the footsteps of his father.

Both father and son took the BJP membership in the presence of the party State unit president K Haribabu.

Lakshminarayana told the media that he was in touch with several Congressmen in Guntur district and they were willing to join the saffron party. They were very much carried away by the style of function of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“In fact, I was very much fascinated by Modi’s style even when he was Gujarat Chief Minister. Now we are falling in line with him,” he said.

The Congress leader, who was the minister in the cabinets of Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, K Rosaiah and N Kiran Kumar Reddy, claimed that he had been invited to join the BJP in the run up to 2014 elections. But he chose to remain the Congress because he was not an opportunist. "I stayed with the Congress during the crisis and now leaving the party because Modi is doing well and developing the country," he quipped.

Former Union Minister Kavuri Sambasiva Rao joined the BJP before the general elections. Now former chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, according to speculation, is likely to join the saffron party.

"We want to strengthen our party by admitting into our fold those who agree with Modi's development modal. At the same time, we don't want to create any inconvenience to the TDP," said Haribabu.