Former Chief Minister of AP Nadendla joins BJP

Hyderabad: Former Chief Minister of united Andhra Pradesh Nadendla Bhaskar Rao, former MPs Rammohan Reddy and Chada Suresh Reddy, former MLA Sasidhar Reddy, film producer Bellam Konda Ramesh, senior retired bureaucrat Chandravadan were among several former MLAs, MPs, bureaucrats, peoples representatives from civic bodies were among those who joined the BJP in the presence of party chief and Union Home Minister Amit Shah here on Saturday.

Shah, who arrived in Hyderabad late in the afternoon to kickstart party membership drive, was given a rousing welcome by the party leaders and cadre at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA), Shamshabad.

He drove down to Ranganayakula Thanda under Mamidipalli village under Pahadesharif mandal to hand over membership card to a tribal woman Soni Nayak, formally launching the party membership drive in Telangana.

The saffron party chief had lunch with the tribal family and interacted with them.

Later, Shah addressed a meeting of the party cadre and leaders, in which, Bhaskar Rao and other prominent former leaders and former MPs from Telugu Desam Party, Deputy Mayor of Ramagundam and others were admitted into the party.

The BJP chief handed over membership cards to five members to kickstart the party membership drive as part of the nation-wide party membership enrollment campaign which was launched in the morning by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, from his Lok Sabha constituency Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh.

The BJP chief was accompanied by party national secretary P Muralidhar Rao, State unit president Dr K Laxman and Union Minister of State for Home Affairs G Kishan Reddy.

Speaking at the meeting State president Dr K Laxman said the emergence of BJP as a formidable opposition in the State is giving sleepless nights to TRS chief and Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao in the aftermath of the Lok Sabha elections.

"Cutting across party lines leaders from different parties have been seeing BJP is the only viable alternative to TRS in the State. Also, the growing internal bickering within the TRS is also giving jitters to the TRS," he said.

Not able to reconcile to reality of the emergency of the BJP, the TRS is resorting to politics of violence against the party leaders and cadre to create fear among them.

However, BJP is a cadre and ideology based party it cannot be cowed down by such tactics, he added.

He said that the party is going ahead with its membership drive with the sole agenda of uniting those who have fought for the separate state cause and democratic forces in Telangana to bring down the dynastic politics of the TRS rule in the State.

Terming the ruling party which has been acting hand-in-glove with the AIMIM and suppressing opposition has turned into a "Naya Nizam Rule", he said adding "TRS will have to pay heavy political prices for the same."