Just days ahead of the crucial by-election to the Nandyal Assembly seat in Kurnool district, the opposition YSR Congress today suffered a setback when its senior leader and local strongman Gangula Pratap Reddy returned to the ruling Telugu Desam Party.
Reddy, a former MP, met Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu in the Secretariat here this evening and joined the TDP.
Incidentally, his brother Prabhakar Reddy quit the TDP in February this year and joined the YSRC. He immediately got elected as an MLC in March.
The Reddys head one faction in the Kurnool politics and wield a clout in their community in the region.
Pratap Reddy, in fact, would have been fielded as the YSRC candidate for the bypoll, but the sudden defection of former minister Silpa Mohan Reddy from the TDP changed the equation.
Silpa Reddy is now the YSRC nominee in the by-poll.
Speculation is rife that Pratap Reddy may now be given the MLC seat vacated by Silpa Chakrapani Reddy, who quit his post and joined the YSRC early this month.
The August 23 by-election is necessitated by the death of sitting MLA Bhuma Nagi Reddy on March 12.
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