Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, April 7: Former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy joined BJP on Friday in New Delhi. He served as chief minister of undivided AP between 2010-2014 following the resignation of then CM K Rosaiah.
Earlier, on March 12 he left the Congress party.
#WATCH | Kiran Kumar Reddy, who served as the CM of united Andhra Pradesh, joins Bharatiya Janata Party in Delhi pic.twitter.com/WrlGjG5Uwr
— ANI (@ANI) April 7, 2023
“I had never imagined that I’ll have to leave Congress…There is a saying- ‘My king is very intelligent, he doesn’t think on his own, doesn’t listens to anyone’s advice’,” former Congress leader Kiran Kumar Reddy said on joining BJP in Delhi.
“Many members of Kiran Kumar Reddy’s family were in Congress. When I met him some time ago, he told me that he was influenced by PM Modi. Today he is taking a big leap and joining the BJP. He will strengthen our fight against corruption because his image as an MLA and minister has been very clean. It will be a big boost for BJP in Andhra Pradesh,” said Union Minister Pralhad Joshi.
Notably, in 2014, Kiran Kumar left the Congress party in protest at the UPA government’s plan to split Telangana and Andhra Pradesh into two separate states. In the 2014 elections, he established his own party, Jai Samaikyandhra, and even fielded candidates in several constituencies.
Despite this, the former CM avoided politics for a considerable amount of time until re-joining the Congress in 2018.
The Congress paid a high price for the splitting of Andhra Pradesh; a large number of party leaders left the state as a result of the split, and the grand old party hasn’t been able to win a single Lok Sabha or Assembly seat in the state since.
