Another blow to Congress: Kakinada MLA joins YSRCP

The Congress government in the state suffered yet another blow with its Kakinada MLA Dwarampudi Chandrasekhar Reddy formally joining the YSR Congress Party on Thursday.

The Congress' strength in the Assembly has now been reduced to 149, just one more than the magic mark of 148 in the 294-member House. Dwarampudi, however, said he would not resign from his post despite switching over to the YSRC.

The MLA met YSR Congress Party honorary president Y S Vijayamma in Hyderabad today and completed the formality of joining the party.

Dwarampudi accused Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy of failing to honour any of the promises made for the development of Kakinada constituency. I waited patiently for a year but the government did nothing to keep its word after I voted against the no-confidence motion in December 2011. Moreover, it has been implementing several anti-people's policies, the latest being the move to increase power tariff very steeply, the legislator pointed out. Hence, he quit the Congress and joined the YSRC to stand by the family of late Dr. Y S Rajasekhara Reddy.